Iciness
by Kittineko
Summary: Sick twisted story until about Chapter 18, when it gets some plot. I'd recommend skipping right to 18. It's co-authored by Mike, who is Verath in the story.
1. Mike

The preps walked into the room. A faint smell of smoke soon turned into a roaring fire in front of them, consuming one of their most esteemed comrades. but then, the sprinkler system sensed the smoke, and began raining down upon them, putting out the flames. "We're saved!" cried one of the preps, as he stuck out his tongue to playfully catch the drops of water. But he instantly spit up when he realized what he had been doing. The preps looked up at the ceiling to see that the sprinkler system was not spraying water. It was blood. Prep blood. There were preps dangling from the ceiling, an intravenous tube connected to each sprinkler. The preps looked down in disgust. Who could have done this? Who could hate them so? they were always so... so.... preppie. But as these thoughts ran through their heads, the doors sealed shut, and the lights dimmed. Suddenly, a well respected prep among preps dropped dead, a sporknf in his back. Two shadowy figures stepped up behind him. they were in trenchcoats, armed to the teeth with sporknfs. One of them said "Existence will last only as long as the ones with power allows it to." A prep stepped forward. "What's that mean?" he asked in a sarcastic tone. The other shadowy figure killed him with a sporknf. "It means," they said "that before you will leave this room, you will all be dead." 


	2. Me

The group of preps backed into a nearby wall as the two mysterious figures advanced, their sporknfs glittering in what little light remained. A cheerleader (aka prep with too much energy) gasped as she leaned against the wall, it was sticky...with layers of blood. Layer after layer...after layer...of prep blood accumulated throughout the years. She screamed ran from the wall...straight into the waiting sporknfs. The preps panicked and ran about in chaos, some dropped to their knees, begging for mercy. Others, the slightly more intelligent ones, tried the doors...but to no avail. One by one they slowly dropped like flies...their blood becoming a lake that drained into the girded floor into waiting tubes that poured them anew onto the grosteque walls. 


	3. Mike

There was screaming, but then it stopped. It was not because they were all dead. Far from it. And it was not because they were no longer afraid. No, their fear was hanging quite obviously in the air. One hooded figure asked the preps "Why have you stopped that beautiful music?" The prep replied "Because what you're doing is wrong! Just because we believe that we're better than you, and that we're more popular, and that you suck and we don't doesn't give you the right to kill us!" The hooded figure took a moment, and then replied "You know, i never thought of it that way..." the preps sighed. It was over! then suddenly "... And i never will think of it that way, either!" There was a flash, a rustle, and the two figures were gone. "hah! they ran away!" Said one stupid prep "they couldn't fess up to the facts that we are better! Is it really over that soon?" "Nope" Said a shadow in mid-air, about to strike the prep at a high speed. that idiot never saw it coming. The strike was so clean, his skull crumpled like that stupid cheap pinata the hooded figure had once hit at a birthday party. "This is just the beginning." Said the other hooded figure. "You can either remain preps and die here, or come with us, and help us kill what you once were." All the preps stepped forward, eager to save their own lives by killing their fellow preps. "You bastards!" shouted the hooded figure "you'd rather save your own worthless asses and kill your lifelong friends rather than fight along side them!? that's it! I'll kil you all!" with that, there was a flash of green powder. A giant item fell down. No, two giant items. One for each shadowy figure. They were.... they were..... giant sporknfs. 


	4. Me

The preps once again erupted into panicked screams, running around like headless chickens. The sporknfs descended, coming down ever closer...and struck the ground, pinning a stupid prep to the ground by a tine. The other preps sighed, they were saved! But then more sporknfs started falling, these were tiny sporknfs, but deadly. They flew through the air with a hissing, as of angry snakes. They cut like a million papercuts, the preps screamed in pain. "Small injuries are deadly when you have enough of them!" said one of the hooded figures. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?!" yelled prep, driven to near insanity by all the pain. " You stupid asses," snapped the other figure, "you discriminate all those who don't fit your ideals. You sneer at them, look down at them in contempt and rub their wounds with salt, wounds you caused. You consider yourselves superior. Your ignorance disgusts me." "BUT WHY?!" "He just told you, you idiot," replied the second figure. The prep didn't get another chance to say anything, a sporknf swiftly ended his mindless chattering. Then, the sporknfs stopped shooting, leaving the pititful group of living preps to fall to the floor, moaning in pain at the miniscule lacerations that covered their bodies. "Don't worry," said the first figure, reassuringly, "This is only the beginning..." 


	5. Mike

"...The beginning of the end!" Yes, it was a pitiful scene, as the preps huddled in fear of the shadowy figures. But then, one of them stepped forward. "This is becoming tiresome. I'm sure our boss wouldn't mind if we spiced things up a bit." He said, with an air of annoyance in his tone of voice "I'm willing to put some sport into this, if you would oblige me so as to listen to my proposition." The preps leaned forward, eager for a chance to escape death. "If one of you can best me in a test of swordsmanship, we shall perhaps think of making arrangements to stop all this carnage." This line was delivered by the second hooded figure, who had a more feminine sounding voice. "Alright, I'll rise to your challenge!" Said an eager and overconfident prep. "I'll use the fencing saber I got when my military academy thanked me for the donation my parents gave. I'm rich, you know." The second hooded figure, quite pissed off by this remark, stepped forward. "fine, use your fencing saber," she said "But if you have no skills with it, it can easily be surpassed by a simple..." a sporknf appeared in her hand. "...Sporknf." The prep laughed. For some reason, he thought this was funny. "Let's begin," said the hooded figure. "the first test shall be a classic. You must shuffle a deck of simple playing cards, along with one sheet of gold foil. The object is to throw the cards into the air and stab your sword through the ace of hearts and the foil before any cards hit the ground. I believe you're up first." The prep walked up nervously. Suddenly, a buzzer sounded, and the cards were shot into the air. The prep waved his sword around like a baseball bat, and managed to hit the two of clubs, the 4 of spades, and even the nine of hearts. But he failed. "Let me show you how a pro does it, you inferior." She used the word inferior in a mocking tone. The prep didn't get the hint. The buzzer sounded. There was a flash, but there were no cards in the air. All eyes were drawn to the tip of the sporknf, where the whole deck was impaled. "Ahhh, but that's not all," she said, with a hint of pride in her voice. She flipped through the cards. Every card was in order, and in suit. And the piece of gold foil was first, followed by the ace of hearts, and so on. And every card was stuck straight through the middle, lined up perfectly with one another. It was truly a spectacle to behold. "I guess you couldn't have helped but lose to the legendary prep slayer!" She removed her hood. It was none other than Xelkitti, the prep slayer. There was a stunned silence in the crowd, until Xelkitti broke the silence, by saying "Now, on to round two." 


	6. Me

The preps were feeling quite uneasy now. Were all the tasks going to be as hard as this first one? Xelkitti smiled sinisterly. Toying with people was such fun! "Okay, listen up," said the hooded figure, "This next task is quite simple. All you have to do, is get us..." "Get you what?" asked a prep, eagerly. He was instantly slain by Xelkitti. The remaining preps gulped and stepped away from his dead body. "A SHRUBBERY!" the figure declared! Monty Python music played. "WHAAAT?!" exclaimed the preps. "Just kidding," said Xelkitti. "You have to win a game of Skip-Bo with me!" 


	7. Mike

"What in the fuck is Skip-Bo?" asked a prep. "Silence!" Shouted the hooded figure. "It's when you..... ummmm..... Well, it's simple, you see.... uhhh... damnit, Xelkitti. Could you help me out? What the hell is Skip-Bo?" He remembered all too late what her response would be "Sore wa himitsu desu!" Shouted Xelkitti, triumphantly. "Mother of fuck!" Shouted the hooded figure. "Well, since we don't know what the hell this is, and since we need some basis for this part of the storyline...." The hooded figure lowered his hood. "It is I, Mike! Founder and co-author of this story!" "Yare....Yare...." Said Xellkitti. "Is that the best name you could come up with?" "What the hell are you talking about!?" asked Mike, a bit peeved off "This is my name, after all!!!" "yeah, but couldn't you have come up with a cool alias, or some sort of codename? Come on! Be creative!" "Oh fine...." muttered mike, quite evidently about to go into spasms of rage. "uhhhhh.... how about.... a name like...... zyg.........." "Excuse me?" asked Xelkitti, motioning for him to speak up, although she quite clearly heard him the first time. "I SAID ZYG!" Screamed mike, quite pissed off by now. "That name sucks!" said Xelkiti. "I think it's cute!" said a cheerleader. She got it straight through the head. Five whole sporks. "How about a name like....." Xelkitti thought for a moment "Mirari! Or maybe.... Ather!" "ohhhhh...." moaned 'Zyg'. "Those are only mildly better, and they still sound corny....." "Well, hurry up, or you name will be Zyg for the rest of this story, and for a lot of other things, for that matter." "Ok.... lemme think...." mike thought. "How about Mtzrhgrr?" "What!? I can't even pronounce that! It-has-no-consonants!!!!" "Alright! How about....." a thought popped into his head "Verath!" "Hmmmmm...." thought Xelkitti "It's none too menacing, and it doesn't stick, but it sounds fast, and it has vowels in it. Ok, but we'll have to change it when we get done here." "Alright, glad that's over. My name still sucks, and we still don't know what Skip-Bo is. Could you enlighten us, Xelkitti?" "Uhhhhh..... no? I've really quite forgotten. For real." "Damnit!!!!!!!" And so they sat. And waited. And They sat and waited until XELKITTI COMES BACK AND TELLS ME EXACTLY WHAT THE FUCKING HELL SKIP-BO IS, AND I'M NOT EVEN SURE IF SHE MEANT IT AS A JOKE, WHICH IS PRETTY PATHETIC!!!!! And while they waited, I made this tribute to Dr. Seuss's green eggs and ham. More of a parody, actually.  
  
Hello, I am Sam. Sam I am! Won't you try these green eggs and ham?  
  
I won't eat that shit and ham! Sam I am, you be damned!  
  
Would you eat them in the rain?  
  
No, I'd rather cause you pain!  
  
Would you eat them in a truck?  
  
Get away from me, you stupid fuck!  
  
Would you eat them, in this store?  
  
Back away, you dirty whore!  
  
Would you eat them, during this bank heist?  
  
I'm warning you, i'm the anti-christ!  
  
Will you eat them, here or there?  
  
Your mental capabilities, I'd like to impair!  
  
I'll use blackmail to get you to eat the green eggs and ham!  
  
Please! Don't tell the cops I killed a man!  
  
Fine i'll eat this dirty crap! Just to keep the murder under wraps!  
  
(eats the green eggs and ham, and promptly realizes he's been poisoned)  
  
This ham isn't ham! and these eggs aren't eggs! You tricked me sam! I'll break your legs!  
  
I was with the FBI! you would have noticed my badge, if you tried!  
  
I'll take that statement about killing a man as a confession! too bad you won't have a funeral procession! (takes gun, fires into guy's skull, and pushes body into sewer. laughs maniacally.)  
  
Well, whaddaya think? It's kinda quirky, but I like it. 


	8. Me

Mwahahaha. I laughed at it. Anyways. Xelkitti took out what looked like three decks of cards wrapped into one. They looked brand new, they even smelled like the store. "You should be honored," she smiled, "I got these cards especially for this occasion!" "Wow!" exclaimed a stupid prep. "Yeah," she grinned, "I wouldn't want to have to burn my good cards because they were contaminated with preppiness." The preps grumbled, but didn't dare say anything in retaliation. "On second thought, wasting five bucks just for a game isn't worth it." She tucked the cards away. The preps sighed in collective relief. 'Verath' frowned, "Hurry up," he said, "Make up your fucking mind already! We wouldn't want our master to become impatient." "Okay okay," Xelkitti said, "I challenge you, to DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION!" "WHAT?!" the preps screeched. Xelkitti ignored them. Bright lights flashed, and when they dissipated, an ultra-high-tech DDR stood in front of them. The entire thing was decorated with blacklights that cast the smoooth, sleek white surface in an eery blue glow. The preps looked at it in awe. Xelkitti grinned, this was going to be fun! She did a flip and landed dramatically at the head of the machine. "Okay, listen up," commanded, "One prep step up to the challenge. If you guys win, there's a tie-breaker. If you guys lose, you all die very slowly and painfully and bloodily and sadistically and agonizingly and-" "We get the picture," 'Verath' interrupted. "I'll do it," said a jock prep. "Okie dokies!" said Xelkitti, happily, "I'll go first." She slid off the head and onto the dance floor. She selected a song called 'Busy Busy'. "This is all Para Para," she explained. The preps looked at her blankly. "Japanese pop music." Suddenly the music started blasting. 'Busy busy ya ya BOOM!' The preps must have jumped three feet in the air. Mostly because of the volume of the music, and secondly because it was so...happy. It sounded nothing like their prep pop music though. It was weeeird... Xelkitti, however, was moving through the complex steps with ease, she was even doing the hand movements, which weren't required.  
  
yare yare *yawns* gtg. Homework calls... 


	9. Mike

The prep stared at Xelkitti with amazement. How the hell was he gonna do this? He only knew preppy dances, like when you got together with a preppie girl, held her close, and shifted your weight from foot to foot. Ahhh, now that was dancing, thought the prep. "Hurry up, dumbass!" shouted Verath, while pushing the prep onto a dance mat pad thing. The prep tried to move and hit the buttons correctly, but he kept falling down. "That gives me an idea!" thought the prep. He began to jump up and fall on his stomach wildly. "If I just keep doing this, It's bound to set off the right button some time!" He thought he was so smart! "Hey!" shouted Xelkitti "Stop dishonoring dance dance revolution! Stop the music!" The music stopped. Everyone looked around. The prep began sweating. Alot. "For your crimes, I challenge you to......" Xelkitti looked around menacingly. "Death Death Revolution!" Them entire floor was now a dance pad, and african american death metal country music accompanied by a banjo accordian bagpipe trio played. Everyone winced and ground their teeth. Everyone except for Verath and Xelkitti. "I kind of like it." said Verath, obviously lying. "it has a certain african american charm. Or maybe that's death metal. Or a country charm. Or some kind of charm brought around by three horrible instruments." "yeah yeah yeah..." said Xelkitti, eager to begin. "Now, the way this is played is essentially the same as dance dance revolution. However, you are free to move to a different dance pad. The floors covered with em anyway. But now, we'll be hitting the buttons, and beating the crap out of each other. Whoever dies first, whether it be from too many hits or this annoying music, or steps off of the dance floor, loses." She looked at the prep. He wasn't so confident now. "So, let's begin!" The music got louder, and they began to dance. It was quite difficult for the prep at first, but when he started to get a hang of it, Xelkitti knocked him on his ass. "This is so beautiful...." said Verath, with a tear in his eye. "the fluency, the motion, all to a steady rhythm. Well, on Xelkiti's part, anyway." He looked back, just in time to see the prep get shot into a wall. Xelkitti was now using the dance pads on the walls to launch herself back and forth. the prep didn't have much longer. "My ears! my face! My ears! My leg!" The prep didn't know which body part to complain about the most, but his ears were probably causing him the most pain. "Yawn... this is getting boring." Said Xelkitti. She snapped her fingers. "Now, when you make a wrong step, or miss a step, a giant iron ball will come out of the ground and pulverize you." xelkitti was not in the least bit worried, and even increased the speed of the music. It now looked like the prep was trying to break dance. When an iron ball hit, he would just fall back down, miss another step, and get whacked in the air again. Then Verath remembered something. As fun as this was, he wanted to have more fun with a tie breaker. The word "tie" didn't seem to apply to this situation. So, thinking quickly, he grasped the prep's feet, and using him as a pogo stick, pressed the right buttons with the preps head. He bounced over to Xelkitti, and explained his plan. He then abruptly punched her, sending her flying off of the dance floor. "Sorry!" he shouted, as Xelkitti blasted into a group of preps, turning some of them into splatter art on the wall. It was unbelievable! However, the prep had not won. He had died of several reasons, all too obvious by the gray and red spatter left on the dance pads. However, this is what he had planned. "Now the prep won't look better than Xelkitti at this, and maybe she won't be as angry." Wrong. He turned around, and had a fist-to- face conference with Xelkitti. He was out for about 3 minutes. When he awoke, Xelkitti began explaining the tie breaker to the preps. "Now, the tie breaker will be...." An evil fire glowed in her eyes as she announced: "SUDDEN DEATH!" Verath walked up and explained more elaborately. "We're gonna kill each other. Preps versus..... uhhh..... not preps! Last ones standing get to walk out alive! And if you guys didn't see this one coming...... You're even bigger idiots than i thought." 


	10. Me

The preps looked at each other. None of them had been expecting this (the idiots). None of them had any weapons, or actual experience in killing people. Their preppiness was not in going to help them now. Xelkitti smiled at their obvious discomfort. "Oh, don't worry," she said in a reassuring fashion that just made the preps more edgy, "You guys get weapons too!" There were more bright lights and the crazy dance pad floor dissappeared. Replacing it was that crazy kung fu place from Matrix where Neo and Morpheus beat the crap out of each other. The only variation was that it was about twice as large and there was an arsenal of weapons lining one wall. There were whips, ninja stars, steel-edged cards, daggers, dirks, longswords, broadswords, ninja swords, sabers, machetes, spears, nunchucks, etc. Just about every kind of sharp pointy object from around the globe was displayed in abundance. And there were poking sticks. Lots of poking sticks. They came in every length, colour, and style imaginable. The preps looked at each other. Yeah, they got weapons, but how the heck did they USE them?! Xelkitti and Verath stood facing them, looking quite pleased. Both of them were now clad in baggy black robe-like clothes. Xelkitti was also swathed in numerous belts that held knives, dirks, daggers, ninja stars, and one longsword. Verath wore only one belt and that held a whip and many decks of throwing cards, edged in jagged iron. And of course, both of them sported a great deal of sporknfs. "Hurry up, choose your weapons," said Verath, eager to get to the good part. The preps nervously looked at the gleaming wall of weapons, the sharp edges glittered in the laternlight, inviting them to pick them up. "Chop chop," said Xelkitti, "We haven't all day!" The preps reluctantly strode over to the weapons and chose a few. Then, feeling slightly more confident now that they were armed, they walked to the center of the arena and faced their enemies. On cue, both parties got into fighting stances, the preps less coordinated than the unpreps. "On the count of three, we start," said Verath, smiling menacingly. "One..." "Two..." said Xelkitti. "THREE!" they shouted in unison. 


	11. Mike

On the third count, Verath and Xelkitti zoomed by, leaving an air vacuum in their wake. It was soon filled with air, resulting in a large explosion of air that knocked over half the preps. The ones wearing heavy armor were not blown against the walls, but they also could not move in time to dodge the next series of attacks. Verath, not having a weapon that could pierce armor, as his spear was lost during some gambling fiasco, ran up to the armored preps, administered three slight raps on the chest plates, and blew the armor into shrapnel. The preps were stunned. They could hardly see the non-preps move. "Hmmmm.... not much of a challenge. These guys aren't even fighting back!" Said Verath to Xelkitti, who had just impaled three preps on a long sword. "I know! They're practically killing each other!" said Xelkitti, trying to contain her laughter as a prep swung madly at her, but hit his friend instead. Verath threw up a deck of cards, and struck it with his whip before the cards seperated. Instantly, 52 razor edged cards shot in seemingly random, yet uniformed directions. 52 preps lay dead. "Care if I duck out for a moment?" asked Verath, desperately wanting his spear back, remembering he had left a spare back at the base. "Yes! i don't think I can handle them alone!" said Xelkitti, extremely sarcastically. Verath dissapeared in a flash of black and blue smoke, and reappeared milliseonds later, but this time with a spear of about 8 and a half feet long. "Damn, I loooove this weapon!" he shouted, as he swug it around, letting the sharp edge of the spear point slit the throats of one row of preps around him. He then thrust it forward and impaled sveral more preps. And then, much to the surprise of Xelkitti, the spear came apart. 'What the fuck!? That's a cheap spear!" Said Xelkitti, as she ran off a wall and slammed her dagger down onto a preps head, spraying his insides all over the wall. "No.... It's just a custome model!" said Verarth, as it was revealed that each of the four pieces of the apparently broken spear had a head as well. The four new, but shorter spears were thrown forward, and pinned eight preps to the wall. Xelkitti then pulled a few of them off of the wall, and threw them into a crowd of preps. Now that many preps were knocked down, she jumped into the air, and began throwing an assortment of ninja stars and knives down. It sent of spatter of blood all over the place, and many preps on the ground was killed by at least one projectile lodged into a part of their anatomy. While Xelkitti was still moving upwards in the air, she turned upside down, pulled out one of her dirks, and kicked off of the ceiling. Then, at top speed, she pierced the ground with her dirk, and sent a shockwave through the room, sending many preps flying up through the ceiling. Xelkitti then landed on her back, pulled out her longsword, and kicked the handle of the dirk imbedded in the ground. The finely waxed floor allowed her to slide down, cutting off preps's ankles with her sword. She then flipped up, and began slashing again. Meanwhile, Verath had grabbed a prep by the neck with his whip, and was using him as a mace on a chord. He then stopped abruptley, noticing that about half of the preps were dead. He snapped his fingers, and a shock was sent through the room that froze everyone, including Xelkitti. "What the hell are you doing!?" screamed Xelkitti. "I'll explain." said Verath, as he pulled the spear pieces out of the wall, and then re-attatched them. "This was too easy. I would enjoy more of a challenge." Said Verath, obviously with another plan prepared. "We gave em weapons and armor. What more do you want?" asked Xelkitti. "it's not what i want...." said Verath "it's what I don't want." He snapped his fingers again. Verath's and Xelkitti's weapons disappeared, soon followed by their sight. "This should even the playing field. And won't it be fun? Hahahahahaha!!!!" laughed Verath. "This is so fucked up...." thought Xelkitti, as she began fighting again. 


	12. Me

Without the benefit of weapons, and most importantly sight, the battle became more intense. Xelkitti and Verath now had to rely on their hearing and reflexes to save themselves from becoming injured. This wasn't all that hard, both of them were well conditioned and had no trouble evading their attackers. The preps never thought of any battle tactics at all, everything was done on whim, which made evading more difficult (because you couldn't rationally predict where the next blow would be) or easier (their speed and reflexes were atrocious). The only problem was that Xelkitti and Verath's offensive was down to next to nothing, since it is quite difficult to evade half a dozen randomly place slashes while trying to grab someone's sword. Xelkitti thus began dodging and leaping towards the wall with the weapons. Verath, however, had other ideas. He plucked ninja stars and steel-edged cards from dead bodies and threw them in the general direction of assault. Several preps fell to this new trick. 


	13. Mike

"STOP!" shouted Verath, to everyone, including himself! "The way this is looking (metaphorically speaking, of course seeing as I am blind) it looks like Xelkitti's going for some weapons, and i am throwing stars and cards. Now, there is a little thing I would like to introduce called plot coherency. It's what connects and holds together parts of a story. Now, I know that this story has almost no plot anyway, but can we retain what little we have? Now, earlier, I said that we were not to use weapons. This includes weapons that were not ours." Xelkitti is beginning to look pissed "look, I'm sorry Xelkitti. i knew you were on a writers block and all, but you have to hear me out!" Xelkitti is on the brink of insanity, about to rip Verath's head off. All that she had written was practically useless! And she had worked so hard, too! Ok, she was beyond insane at this point. "GOD DAMN YOU VERATH!!!!!! I'LL CRACK YOUR SKULL AND FEED YOUR FUCKING INTESTINES TO THE WOLVES! I'LL RIP OUT YOUR SPINE, USE IT AS A WHIP, AND GUT YOUR SPLEEN! i'LL KILL YOU!!!!!!!!!" In a tornado of hatred Xelkitti began punching random things and throwing stuff out of the way. mostly preps. "Just follow the sound of my voice!" shouted Verath "if you can catch me, you can kill me!" Xelkitti was now in a fit of pure rage. It didn't matter that she was blind. She would just rip through anything anyway. Preps didn't know if they should interfere or not, but they were slaughtered anyway. One punch was all it took, and it would send ten of them flying. Just the sonic boom left from were Xelkitti had just chased after Verath was enough to rip a giant gash in their mid sections. When Xelkitti finally drew near to Verath, he was standing in front of the last grouping of preps. Xelkitti wound up for a gigaton punch, but verath moved out of the way just in time. the remaining preps were shot out through the wall and through a mountainside, and continued that way for another couple of miles. Verath snapped his fingers again, and Xelkitti's sight was back, but she was frozen. "YOU DIRTY FUCKING-" She stopped suddenly, and realized that no more preps were left. "Yeah, I figured: Why should I kill them while I can get someone to do it for me? I was blind, you know." Said Verath, with a smile on his face. Xelkitti calmed down. "You mean, you anticipated all that? the writers block? The anti-plot coherency? Everything?" "Yup," said Verath "Just about." "So, you manipulated me!?" Xelkitti asked, astounded. "Yup." Said verath, triumphantly. He was slammed in the face by a giant stick of sugar cane. "Don't try that again, or I'll hit you in the face with something with less sugar content, and more.... oh, say.... Iron?" "Alright, alright....' said Verath "Point taken. Now, let's hurry up. Master wants us to kill those bloody door to door salesmen. They keep trying to sell him some kind of Granny mugging device. As if he wasn't capable of it already." "Please...." said Xelkitti impatiently "Master Xellos has much too much class for that." 


	14. Me

Xelkitti and Verath sat down amidst the few battered corpses that hadn't been blown away. Xelkitti used a machete to skillfully slice away the black skin of the sugar cane, leaving only the delicious woody interior. She cut it into two and offered Verath one of them. Verath accepted. They both chewed and spat in relative silence for a few moments, letting the sweet juices sink into their system and replace the adrenaline that had been lost during the 'battle'. Then, Xelkitti spoke. "Weren't you going to change your name after that story?" she asked. "Hm? Oh, yeah," said Verath. (I dunno if you wanna stick with Verath or change it to Ortarius or whatever, so I leave that part up to you.) "Maybe later."  
  
Xelkitti shrugged and continued chewing her sugar cane. When both of them had finished she stood and stretched. Verath snapped his fingers, and they were instantly in Beastmaster Xellos's room. It was a very gloomy cave-like place. Blackout drapes covered the tall windows. Paintings of wolves decorated the walls. A large bed with black hangings shrouding it from the world was in a corner. Various magical weapons were carefully laid out in a corner. Everything was wreathed in flowery scent, caused by the lavender scented purple candles lined the walls. The flames were a light purple hue. Xellos's room was a palette of purples. Xellos himself was relaxing in a plush dark purple armchair situated in front of a viewing mirror. At the moment it showed the place they had been fighting. Mangled prep corpses littered the sides of the mountain atop which the building stood. Xellos smiled Xelkitti and Verath could see shadowed face reflected in the viewing mirror as they stood behind his chair.  
  
"The preps have been taken care of," reported Verath, though all three of them knew it was unnecessary. Xellos knew everything that went on amidst his servant's lives.  
  
"Very good show," he said, his voice was smooth and rich, like a delicious chocolate. (We're using his Japanese voice because we killed David Moo, okay? = an interesting story idea)  
  
"You requested us?" asked Verath.  
  
"Yes," said Xellos, "I wish for Xelfan12 to join you on this particular odyssey, I'm sure you won't mind?" This last question was more of a statement.  
  
"No, we don't," said Xelkitti, cheerfully.  
  
"Have fun," said Xellos, by way of departure. Xelkitti and Verath vanished a moment later, appearing in a conference room.  
  
"This is the trap?" asked Xelkitti, dubiously. She looked down at her new attire. A blouse, black business jacket, and skirt, accompanied by high- heels. "I look ridiculous!"  
  
Verath grinned. He looked quite nice in a black business suit and tie. Xelkitti frowned and exchanged her skirt for a flared black dress.  
  
"The least I can do is look at least SLIGHTLY gothic," she muttered. Door- to-door salesmen began coming into the conference room, expecting a meeting. Xelkitti and Verath smiled. This was going to be fun! 


	15. Mike

"Alright, everyone! Settle down! We're going to have a meeting about your progression in your various fields of 'business." Said Verath, as everyone sat down. Xelkitti sat down, and Xelfan12 ran through the door.  
  
"Sorry i'm late. Wait, no, i'm not sorry." said Xelfan12.  
  
Quite alright, my good man. Have a seat." Verath motioned for his bestest friend to sit next to him.  
  
"Now, I called you all here today-" Verath stopped talking, but his lips were still moving. The salepeople had a confused expression on their faces, while Xelkitti and Xelfan12 tried to suppress their laughter.  
  
"Oh my god! I've gone deaf!" said one salesperson.  
  
"Me too!" said another, too stupid to realize the irony of what he'd just said. There was a great commotion, and then Verath began speaking again.  
  
"-And that is why casual Friday has been moved to January."  
  
"Wait!" said a salesperson "January isn't a day! It's a month!"  
  
"No, you are not listening!" said verath, with a slight but undetectable smirk. "There are seven months in a year, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, correct?"  
  
"Bu-"  
  
"And there are twelve days in each month, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December. Except for Tuesday, which has thirteen days, one being Octobruary. Now, shut up and listen." the salespeople were working frantically to try and work this one out.  
  
"God, they're dumb." said Xelkitti, laughing.  
  
"Oh, by the way," said Xelfan12 'Xellos said you guys ordered new weapons. I already got my enchanted blackjack made of sheep stomach filled with marbles, but I think your weapons will be equally as fascinating." He handed them two boxes. Xelkitti and Verath opened them anxiously.  
  
"Wow! they finally came!" they shouted in unison. Xelkitti held up what seemed to be a giant pair of scissors. But they were brilliantly decorated with jagged edges and sharp blades, and were all black and perfectly symmetrical.  
  
"Scissors?" asked xelfan12, skeptically.  
  
"Not just scissors, death scissors. The kind the reapers use when they get bored with their scythes." said Xelkitti, slightly annoyed.  
  
"What did you get?" Xelkitti asked Verath, anxiously. Verath looked up quickly. He saw that the salespeople were still arguing. They would probably have another hour or so.  
  
"I got....." Verath reached into the box, and started spinning the two weapons at high speed around his fingers. They stopped, and revealed themselves to be two extremely large handguns with two triggers on each.  
  
".... Devil Magnums." he said, dramatically. "They have more accuracy than a sniper rifle, wider range than a shotgun, and they're more powerful than a rail gun. They can only hold six shots apiece, but they don't need more than two to clear a room two times the size of this one. They release such power when triggered, they can rip apart anything within ten feet of the path of the bullet. The target, if hit, will be totally obliterated. Of course, they have a tremendous recoil and the strength needed to pull the trigger is almost that of one hundred large horse pulling on it."  
  
"What's the second trigger for?" asked Xelkitti, drooling over the pistols.  
  
"That's the death trigger." said Verath "It does even more damage."  
  
"Well, that all sounds great," said Xelfan12 "but let's see what mine and Xelkitti's weapons can do first." 


	16. Me

"I've got it!" exclaimed a salesman, "Casual Friday is moved to January which is the first day of each month! So we get SEVEN casual fridays instead of twelve!"  
  
"Wow," said Xelkitti, turning to Verath, "I wasn't aware there was actually logic to that all bullshit."  
  
"Me neither," admitted Verath. "Well, shall we test our weapons?"  
  
"Of course," said Xelfan12, "You first."  
  
"My pleasure," grinned Verath. He aimed and fired, all in one fluid motion. His aim was impeccable. Exactly a fourth of the salespeople were blown away. His arm barely jerked from the recoil. His companions applauded enthusiastically.  
  
"My turn!" said Xelkitti, cheerfully. She threw the death scissors. How she managed to do it without cutting off any fingers was left to speculation. The entire scissors seemed to be covered in blades. The death scissors flew through the air at great speeds, cutting off the arms of a saleswoman as it past, as easily as a red-hot sporknf through butter, then her head as it whizzed back like a supersonic boomerang. Several salespeople around her were blown away by the sonic boom. Xelkitti leapt onto the table and caught it, once again without losing any body parts. She turned and bowed while Verath and Xelfan12 clapped.  
  
"I don't think this meeting is right..." said the salesman that had figured out the logic behind Verath's speech. In a wave of navy blue and grey suits, the salespeople ran for the door. A nanosecond before the first of them touched the door handle, they were all thrown into complete darkness.  
  
Confused, they milled about like lost sheep until the lights returned again, revealing their new surroundings. They were in some kind of lobby or waiting room. Plush armchairs lined the walls, broken only by the occasional endtable full of magazines and brochures. A young lady with firey red hair tucked neatly into a bun sat typing away at the computer behind a desk. What kind of joke was this?  
  
"Where are we?" asked one of the salespeople.  
  
"Oh, just wait until your name is called," replied the lady behind the desk. The salespeople nervously settled into chairs. One of them picked up a magazine and opened it without a second thought. Another glanced through a brochure.  
  
Voodoo Kit Deluxe Edition! 2056!  
  
Includes material for five dolls, plus pins, instructions, and 'How to Cause Agonizing Pain, the Voodoo Way' booklet by Xelkitti.  
  
What kind of brochure was this? Meanwhile, the reader of the magazine threw is away in panic. It landed, cover up on the floor. PlayMazoku. The brochure soon joined it, revealing it to be Torture Buddy 2003. 


	17. Mike

"Mr. Anderson.... Mr. Anderson!" Mr. Anderson looked up. "Please report to Dr. Xelfan12's office immediately."  
  
Mr. Anderson walked nervously through the only door he could see.  
  
"Ahh... Mr. Anderson!" said Xelfan12, with a big, phony smile on his face. "Mind if I call you George?"  
  
"But my name is Phi-"  
  
"alright then, George. In case you were wondering, i brought you here to demonstrate to my collegues, Dr. Verath (Yup, keeping the name) and Dr. Xelkitti, that my weapon is indeed as useful as theirs."  
  
"How do I help?" asked George, nervously. "Just stand there, and watch. Wait. If your even a bit squeamish, maybe you shouldn't." Said Xelfan12.  
  
"But ho- OOOOFFF!!" Sputtered George, as a large marble filled sheep stomach black jack hit him.  
  
"What's your point? We know how a blackjack works, you know." Said Xelkitti. Verath nodded.  
  
"not this one." said Xelfan12. That instant, the stomach split open. All the marbles had melted together and made a giant glass blade. They melded together with the stomach to make a giant sword that seemed to have an organic substance around the hilt and on one edge of the blade. "Did you really think I'd have a stupid weapon like that!?" asked Xelfan12.  
  
"Uhhhh.... no. I did design it, after all. Remember that recipe to boil a scottsman?" asked verath.  
  
"Oh yeah!" said xelkitti 'So that's what you meant by "enchanting" the stomach!" The sword was amazing. xelfan12 Thrust it forward. The blade part slid forward on a pole that was inside, making it look like a short spear with a large head. with a flick of his wrist, the blade tipped to it's side, making the sword into a double edged scythe.  
  
"Awesome!" Said Xelkitti. "My death scissors are better, though. Watch." She pulled out the death scissors, and pulled them apart so she now had two blade. A part of the blade on each now popped out and moved forward, making each blade look like a spiky V. The same happened on the other side, and the blades now looked like a W. Finally, she grabbed the round handle on each blade, and it slipped onto her wrist, and locked firmly into place. "Hah! Now i can break that sword!" said Xelkitti, triumphantly. "one twist with this, and-"  
  
"Hey!" said Verath. "What about the special features on my weapons!" he tooke both of them out, and set a dial from "powder" to "magic." He then began firing at an incredible rate. "the shots are not as powerful, but i can keep shooting as fast and as long as I want. it runs off magic." he then set the dial back to powder on one gun, and put the other one away. He unlocked the second trigger and pulled it with both hands. He aimed up into the air, and the shot fired. There was a deafening crack (literally. George went almost deaf) and a blaze of black followed the bullet. It began to suck everything out of the area before it was sealed. The bullet continued up, blew up the moon, and kept going.  
  
"Awww... you hurt the moon!" said Xelkitti, as she snapped her fingers. The moon was back.  
  
"that black streak was rip between dimensions caused by the bullet's speed. Go into there, and you'll die. For sure." George was more horrified than amazed. Xelfan12 noticed.  
  
"oh yeah! I forgot!" He injected George with something, and george went stiff. He then said "What do you desire, master?" Xelfan12 smiled. Everyone else looked puzzled. "Things are about to get a little more interesting." Said Xelfan12.  
  
~Note from one of the authors~ There was a mistake during the exportation of this story and Xelkitti's part was accidentally mixed in with Mike's. So.this is Xelkitti's chapter.  
  
Xelkitti and Verath looked at him with puzzled expressions on their faces. George looked at him wide-eyed in unadultered panic.  
  
"Xellos-sama demands an Enchanted Sheep Stomach and Scottsman Pie to throw at Filia," announced Xelfan12. George's panic tripled.  
  
"Don't worry, George!" said Xelkitti, "It won't hurt that much."  
  
"Xelkitti, your definition is 'that much' is beyond human comprehension," Verath pointed out.  
  
"Oh, yeah, well. Going on," said Xelkitti, hastily. Verath reached into his suit and pulled out an index card. He handed it to Xelfan12.  
  
"It's the recipe," he said. George frantically tried to run, but to no avail. All he succeeded in doing was falling over and hitting his head on the wall. Xelfan12 then began to advance on him menacingly. In the background, Verath pulled a cauldron out from underneath Xelfan12's desk while Xelkitti began building a roaring bonfire. George's eyes bulged out of his head, rolling every which way in fear. Xelfan12 glanced at the recipe card.  
  
"Now that the stomach is magically enchanted, kill a scottsman with it, be creative," he glanced down at George, "Well, you're the closest scottsman!" He smiled very widely and fakely, the enchanted sheep stomach wielded in his right hand. Xelkitti's bonfire was burning cheerily in the corner with Verath's cauldron sitting atop it, held in place by a tripod of some sort. They were now filling it with water by running to the drinking fountain down the hall and running back with paper cupfuls of water. What little water survived this intense trip was thrown into the cauldron, but about half of it sizzled away withen the first five  
  
seconds because of the intensity of the flames.  
  
~Now this is Mike's part again~  
  
"Well," said Xelfan12, almost regretfully "i guess this is goodbye, George." Xelfan12 morphed the sheep stomach into the organic sword again, and turned it into a scythe. He swung it down hard, when suddenly there was a loud clang, and the scythe stopped. It was Verath, stopping the blade with a tiny but strong and elegant looking knife. Xelfan12 and Xelkitti were shocked. "What the... why? Gte out of my way!" said xelfan12, as he again attempted to decapitate and mangle george. This time, Verath gave an upward thrust, and the scythe flew out of Xelfan12's hands.  
  
"Verath wh-" said Xelkitti, in mid sentence. But Verath cut her off, and began to explain himself.  
  
"As i handed you the recipe card," he motioned toward Xelfan12. "I had not realized what else was on it." The card zoomed out of Xelfan12's hands, and into Verath's. "Look at what it says on the back." He flipped it over, and, sure enough, there were a couple of words written on the back. they said: "This recipe is both fun to make, and to use. I highly recommend it." it was signed in an elaborate signature, which apparently said "Chef Xellos."  
  
"So?" asked Xelkitti, looking hungrily at George, then back at the scythe. "You borrowed it from Xellos while he was on his cooking obsession. So what?"  
  
"That is exactly the problem." said verath. "I remember him saying to me when i borrowed the recipe: 'Oh, yes, you can keep that card. But you won't ever be able to get a sufficient splatter by just following a recipe."  
  
"And?" asked Xelkitti, becoming more and more impatient by the moment.  
  
"And," began Verath "Do you think that Lord Xellos would leave such a delicate task in our hands? He does want it to be the perfect pie for hitting Filia in the face with...."  
  
"SO WHAT!?" asked Xelkitti, impatiently, obviously not paying enough attention to what Verath was saying, so that she missed all the subtle hints that he was reaching a point.  
  
"So...." continued verath, with an air of supperiority. "Knowing this, and the fact that the pie is 'fun to make' according to Xellos, do you really think that he would have let us do it?"  
  
"yeah, but he's busy. he couldn't have done it himself!" said Xelfan12, defensively. Verath smiled.  
  
"Ahhhh, but if he had time to plan a pie-raid on filia, he couldn't have been that busy, could he? And another thing. We all know how Lord Xellos feels about Filia. He would obviously do this task himself, if he really wanted satisfaction, which we all know he does. And the final point...... How did Lord Xellos know that George was a Scottsman? He wouldn't have made us make this pie if George hadn't been a conveniently placed scottsman. You were the one, after all, that asked him what to do with George, no?" verath motioned towards Xelfan12. He nodded. "So, how did he know? Simple: He didn't! It was all a rouse! Xelfan12! when you closed your eyes and heard Lord Xellos speak, what did you see?"  
  
"uhhhh...." thought Xelfan12. "nothing much.... just a cloud of-" he stopped with understanding "red. Xellos would be purple."  
  
"So, you understand at last." said verath.  
  
"Why was george supposed to be baked in a pie, then?" asked Xelkitti.  
  
"Because he knows too much. He would be a danger to a higher order somewhere. They want him dead, because he-"  
  
"Might spill information." finished Xelkitti. "So then, let's begin." Xelfan12 slammed George against a wall, and began interrogating him. 


	18. Me

"So, George," said Verath, cheerily tickling George's nose with his petite little knife, "What do you know that we don't?"  
  
George looked at him helplessly. Xelfan12 kept a firm grip on his throat and Xelkitti perched herself on Xelfan12's desk, which was conveniently located next to the door. Any attempts at escape would result in horrible casualties. Fortunately, none could be made.  
  
"You paralyzed him with that stuff you injected into him, remember?" asked Xelkitti.  
  
"Oh yeah!" said Xelfan12, "We did do that! You got the-"  
  
"Antidote," Xelkitti whipped out a hygenic needle from somewhere, it was filled with a greenish brown fluid. She tossed it to Xelfan12, who caught it, flipped off the rubber tip and injected George with it. Immediately, George began whimpering incomprehensible jibberish.  
  
"Jabbadagimlesishmimlwim-" he blubbered, his eyes flicking from Verath's knife, to Xelfan12's arm, to Xelkitti, then to the door. His knees gave out from under him and he would have fallen if not for Xelfan12's hand at his throat. His hands shook uncontrollably.  
  
Verath slapped him. "English, please," he demanded.  
  
"I don't know anything!" George burst out, frothing at the mouth.  
  
"He's not gonna say anything until we start removing things," said Xelfan12, grinning suggestively.  
  
"Let's start by castrating him!" Xelkitti suggested brightly. She took out a small axe and fire tongs. She was serious.  
  
"Good idea, I'm surprised I didn't think of it myself," said Verath.  
  
"OKAY I'LL TALK!" screamed George, who was now near hysterics. Being cornered an interrogated by a group of merciless psychos has that effect on a person. "IT WAS DYNAST, JUST GET ME AWAY FROM THAT CRAZY GIRL!!!" 


	19. Mike

"hmmmm.... interesting." said Verath, smiling. "Although I don't know anymore about Dynast than where he lives....."  
  
"I don't know that much about him, either. How about you, Xelkitti?" She didn't answer. She was staring at George, who had finally stopped screaming.  
  
"uhh, Xelkitti? You're not gonna get anymore answers out of that guy. I can tell that his well's run dry. xelkitti? What are you staring at?" But right after Verath said that, he too was looking at George. So was Xelfan12. George had not only stopped screaming, but a strange aura was now surrounding him.  
  
"What the hell? What the hell is he doing?" asked Xelfan12.  
  
"Ummm... maybe we should restrain him a little. just to be safe." said Verath, whipping around the small knife. Instantly, a large blade of ice grew out of the smaller blade, and was released, pinning george to the wall. Verath made a few more swings, and george was completely incapable of motion. But suddenly, the aura around george intensified so much, the ice broke to pieces, and a stretched out, high pitched screaming noise was made.  
  
'What..... The Hell.... WAS THAT!?" asked xelkitti, frantically. But her question was answered as george's body erupted, revealing what looked like a giant gorilla, but with white fur, horns, and rows of jagged teeth.  
  
"as you can see...." said the beast, no longer in George's voice. "I am not a saleperson at all. nor am i a scottsman." He laughed, spraying a cold stream of spit from his mouth. "i am, in fact, a scout for Lord Dynast Grauscherra." He stopped and looked at Xelfan12, Xelkitti, and Verath. 'Ahhh, 3 against one of me? it hardly seems fair for you. Mwahahahaha!" he laughed again, but this time, when the phlegm erupted from his throat, it flew by Verath's head and froze a nearby chair. "Ahhh... I almost forgot! I have a bit of a lisp when I talk...." as he said this, more of his saliva spewed out, freezing a section of the floor solid. "...And as you've probably realized, my spit is a bit.... deadly." The frozen tiled floor broke into pieces, revealing the earth beneath it.  
  
"So, what's your battle strategy? Are you gonna spit on us or something? How second grade..." said Verath, annoying the giant monkey guy.  
  
"Silence!" roared the ape, as he hacked back, and launched a 2 gallon loogie straight at verath. Verath took it on full force, immediately freezing where he stood. Then the ice broke, but verath remained in one piece.  
  
"I too am an ice elemental. And all your stupid tricks will do is to annoy me." He paused, looking at the wad of phlegm before it dissipated into thin air. "And may I recomend some listerene?"  
  
"ARGHH!!!! I'll show you that the minions of the general of Dynast are superior to those of the General of Beastmaster! If you can manage to beat me and my two other comrades, we will give you information on Dynast's exact whereabouts. There, you can interrogate him all you want. He is up for a good challenge. However..." he glanced around, confidently. "I severely doubt that you can defeat me." Xelfan12, Xelkitti, and Verath stepped forward. "No! One on one!" shouted the gorilla.  
  
"Alright...." said Xelfan12, as they all stepped back into a circle.  
  
"listen," said Xelkitti. "We need to beat all three of these guys to get to Dynast. We need to know why he was organizing the takeover of the door-to- door sales companies, and why Xellos wanted us to stop him."  
  
"Does Xellos even know?" asked Verath.  
  
"Of course!" said Xelfan12. "He probably had this all planned out. you know how sneaky he can be!"  
  
"Alright," said Verath. "So, who will fight this guy?"  
  
"I nominate you!" said Xelkitti, grinning. "You're the only ice elemental here. You can't be frozen!"  
  
"damn!" said verath "And may i ask what kind of elements you and Xelfan12 prefer to fight with?"  
  
"Now that is a secret!" said xelkitti and xelfan12 in unison. Verath sweatdropped.  
  
"Alright, I'll go." He stepped toward the giant gorilla.  
  
"you're fighting me? What a joke!" said the beast, once again laughing, and spraying spit everywhere. "I'll take that as an insult. Obviously you think i'm the weakest of the group," said verath, ominously "But I'm not. Especially when i'm using this!" He pulled out a small blue stone on a fine silver chain.  
  
"Ha! What does that do?" asked the beast, obviously not impressed. Verath didn't answer, but instead swung it around a few times. With each swing, the chain and stone grew bigger, until they resembled a mourning star.  
  
"And with this, I can cast spells ten times more powerful than i could before." Verath grinned. "Oh, and did i mention my pistols?" he spun them out, loading them with a click. "this battle may be fun after all..." 


	20. Me

George the giant ape thing growled, then charged, his mouth wide open, saliva spewing everywhere. He left two trails of ice as he ran, courtesy of his spit. Xelfan12's office suddenly expanded tenfold, allowing room for manuverability. George stopped mid-charge.  
  
"Hey! You can't change scenery on me like that!" he said, spewing great globs of goopy spit as he did.  
  
"Shut up and fight," snapped Xelkitti. George growled again, and charged Verath. Verath neatly side-stepped him, but George had been anticipating this. He threw himself at Verath, hoping to crush him. Unfortunately, Verath had been anticipating that, George found himself impaled upon a sword of ice, coming from Verath's little knife. He just grinned and absorbed the ice into him.  
  
"Nice try," he spewed. He lept forward, mouth open wide in a roar. Verath cooly jumped back to avoid being crushed and shot a bullet straight into George's humongous mouth. The bullet sent shockwaves through the air as it ripped through dimensions, it went straight though George's head, hardly slowing at all from the impact. George fell to the ground with a heavy THUMP. Verath shrugged and walked towards Xelkitti and Xelfan12.  
  
"That was WAY too easy," he said, as he reached them.  
  
"Yeah it was," agreed Xelfan12, "That's why it's not over yet."  
  
"What?" Verath turned around and saw George climbinb to his feet, the hole through his head was still there but it didn't seem to have much effect on him. It wasn't even bleeding. Verath swore viley.  
  
"You won't beat me that easily," grunted George, ambling towards them. Suddenly he was right behind Verath, putting him into a headlock. He had teleported. He drooled profusely all over Verath's head, freezing him. Xelkitti and Xelfan12 teleported overhead to watch.  
  
Verath broke free from George's ice and his poorly executed headlock. He teleported halfway across Xelfan12's expanded office and shot an Ice Arrow at George. George was too busy looking bewildered at Verath's escape to notice the spell coming. It hit him head-on, encasing him in a cage of ice. Before he could absorb the ice Verath was bombarding him with Ice Bit and a very nicely placed Digger Volt. Then a Flare Arrow. George screamed in agony as he was eletricuted, burned, and cut by thousands of tiny pieces of ice. He teleported out of there, appearing on top of Verath. Verath shot him with the Death Pistols and fired a Blast Bomb before teleporting to the far side of the office. George sent a wave of ice after him, which was useless as usual. There was no way he could beat Verath. The only magic he knew was ice magic and that had no effect on Verath whatsoever. He couldn't beat Verath phisycally because he kept teleporting away and he was armed with those two Death Pistols and the little knife. The Blast Bomb coming at him ended it all. Each ball of fire was ten times as powerful as usual, George simply couldn't take it. He discintegrated with one final phelgm- rich roar. Xelkitti and Xelfan12 clapped as Verath bowed elegantly and teleported next to them. Then, the next servant of Dynast appeared. A humongous Artic Fox with two tentacles coming out of his back.  
  
"WHO DARES CHALLENGE ME?" he roared, liquid nitrogen billowed out of his mouth as he did. Freezing everything in its path.  
  
"Does Dynast have a thing for deadly spit or something?" asked Xelkitti.  
  
"Don't tell me you're SCARED," teased Verath.  
  
"Who said I was going?" she snapped.  
  
"We do," chorused Verath and Xelfan12.  
  
"Damn you both, I'm not ice elemental! I'm fire and illusion!!!"  
  
"Xelkitti, come on," said Xelfan12, "They're all ice elemental anyways. You're gonna have to go sooner or later."  
  
"WHO CHALLENGES ME, THE MIGHTY WEEJEE?!" demanded the fox.  
  
"WEEJEE?!" 


	21. Mike

Xelkitti looked shocked, and then burst out laughing. "WEEJEE!? Oh god! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Verath and Xelfan12 looked at her, sweatdropping. It was an odd name, but it wasn't a rolling on the floor laughing matter.  
  
"Shut UP!" yelled Weejee, quite obviously pissed off. "If you even have the slightest bit of honor, you will get off of the floor and fight me now. My name certainly does not reflect my power!" xelkitti stood up. She had realized that, despite his comical name, Weejee meant business. And she wasn't ice elemental, either.  
  
"Alright, let's start!" she said, getting into a fighting position, her death scissors held in one hand, ready to swing around and close on Weejee's neck at a moment's notice.  
  
"Alright, Xelkitti." Verath said, smiling. "Watch out for that spit of his. I can't do anything to help you. Fire won't help, either. It'll freeze you solid." For some reason, these words didn't help Xelkitti's confidence much.  
  
"So, let's begin!" growled Weejee, drooling all over the floor. Xelkitti looked almost intimidated. She was the first to strike. She lunged forward, straight for Weejee's throat. "Too easy!" he proclaimed, spewing his liquid nitrogen all over Xelkitti. "ARRGGGGHHHHH!!!!" xelkitti screamed out as the cold enveloped her body, freezing her solid.  
  
"No! it can't be!" Xelfan12 said, as he ran forward. Verath grabbed him, forcing him to remain still.  
  
"That's because it isn't. look." he pointed at the seemingly frozen Xelkitti, who's body had just hit the floor. but there was a flash of fire, and the ice melted. Xelkitti propelled herself down off of the ceiling.  
  
"Did you think I was that stupid?" asked Xelkitti. "You forget i am illusion elemental, too!" Weejee, being caught off guard, was not fast enough to dodge Xelkitti's attack, and his right tentacle was cut off.  
  
"Damn you!" spat Weejee. "But you too have underestimated me!" the second tentacle lunged for Xelkitti, baring several rows of fangs. Xelkitti, hardly recovering from her impact with the floor, barely had enough time to shout "Raywing!" as she flew upward, dodging the second tentacle. "As you may soon see," continued Weejee. "I can not only cast a wider range of magic than my predecessor, but i can also use the mouth on this tentacle to cast spells, as well!" He slammed the tentacle to the floor, casting a dug haut, while at the same time, casting a wind brit from above. In this manner, Xelkitti was forced downward onto the stone spikes protruding from the ground. Xelkitti screamed out in pain. "hahahaha!" laughed Weejee, as he stared at Xelkitti, writhing on the stone spikes. "I knew i was too much for her!"  
  
"Damn..." said verath. "And I took the easy one. I feel bad now." but then Xelkitti stopped screaming. In fact, she was now laughing. "Ha! Fooled you!" she shouted, as she jumped off of the spikes. she had several large gashes through her body.  
  
"Nothing!" she shouted, and her entire body erupted into flames. "By becoming fire itself, i can easily close up these wounds!" Sure enough, the wounds closed up. Xelkitti then took advantage of Weejee's shock to cast several Val Flares at his remaining tentacle, blowing it off of his body, and simultaneously melting it. "Hah! You're worse than i thought! i guess I'll finish you off now!" She ran head on, still flaming, at Weejee. She jumped back just as a spatter of liquid nitrogen hit in front of her, but the flames surrounding her body kept running, and jumped into Weejee's mouth. Weejee yelped as the piercing hot flame entered his stomach. A muffled cry of burst flare was heard coming from inside Weejee, as he began to explode from the inside. Pieces of him splattered against the wall, as the sound of applause came from the direction of Verath and Xelfan12.  
  
"Well done. So.... creative." said xelfan12. Just then, a large polar bear reared forward out of the ground. He looked like George, but he was much bigger, and had no horns.  
  
"I almost forgot..." said xelfan12, casually, as he walked up towards the bear. "and may i ask your name?" the bear looked down.  
  
"My name is Mundus, and i believe that you'll find that I am invincible in comparison to the weaklings you just fought."  
  
"On the contrary..." said Xelfan12, a hint of excitement in his voice. "I usually find that a combination of fire and darkness can easily defeat most anything!" 


	22. Me

"MOST anything," pointed out Mundus, "Your pathetic dark fire is no match for my freezing fart!"  
  
"WHAAAAAAAT?!" all three companions yelled at once, then fell to the floor laughing uncontrollably.  
  
"Shut up laughing!" demanded Mundus. He had no effect whatsoever on them.  
  
"So he's going to FART at you?!" laughed Xelkitti, holding her sides.  
  
"My god, this is too much, make it stop," gasped Xelfan12 between bouts of laughter.  
  
"I don't think we'll even get to fight, we're gonna die laughing," said Verath.  
  
"THIS IS NOT FUNNY!!!!" roared Mundus, "GET UP AND FIGHT YOU COWARDS!!!"  
  
"Yeah, we're terrified of your fart," said Xelfan12, sarcastically. He stopped laughing. They calmed down enough to stop laughing. Xelkitti and Verath flew onto a ceiling beam to watch the upcoming battle. Xelfan12 and Mundus began circling each other warily, waiting to see who would make the first move. Mundus abruptly stopped circling as his face took on an expression of intense concentration. Xelfan12 also stopped, ready to dodge or counterattack whatever Mundus was going to do. Then....PPPPPPPHHHHHHT!!! Mundus farted. Not just any fart, the freezing fart. Pale blue gases eeked out of his butt...freezing everything with a thin layer of ice. But it wasn't the freezing that was bad, Xelfan12 could easily deflect that, it was the SMELL. Gods, as long as he had lived (and that's pretty damned long) Xelfan12 had never encountered ANYTHING that smelled as bad as this. It was the Mother of all Farts, it was freaking unholy. He'd never thought such pungency could exist. It was worse than a field of rotting bodies on a hot August a day after a battle. It was worse than the Roman Sewage system. It made landfills look like fields of sweet wildflowers. Take every odor you have smelled in your entire life, roll it together, and you'll get a hundreth of what Xelfan12 was suffering. He sank to his knees, the bile rising in his throat. It was too much. He felt dizzy and couldn't seem to move right. He was barely aware of his own retching.  
  
"Now I REALLY feel bad for taking the easy one," Verath said the Xelkitti.  
  
"Yeah," she agreed, "Nosegay, Verath?" Verath nearly tumbled off his rafter backing way from the offending object.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!!!" he screamed.  
  
"It's blood-scented," said Xelkitti.  
  
"Oh." Verath took the nosegay.  
  
Meanwhile, Mundus was throwing an Ice Lance at Xelfan12. He barely got out of there in time. One of the shards of ice cut his shoulder. He disappeared in to the shadows, literally.  
  
"COME OUT YOU COWARD!!!" Mundus shouted, shooting ice arrows everywhere.  
  
"I told you fire and darkness can beat most anything," Xelfan12's voice said. Because of his darkness element, he was able to become darkness and hide in shadows. Mundus cast a lighting, hoping to force Xelfan12 out of his shadow form, but Xelfan12 just moved to the rafters. Mundus was berated with a number of fireballs and flare arrows raining down upon him. Several of them hit their mark. He roared in pain. Then, Xelfan12 teleported behind him with his organic sword, ready to slice off Mundus's head. Mundus whipped around and spat at him. Xelfan12 dodged it, but not the icicle assault that followed. (TOTALLY stolen from Rayearth) Then came the battle of organic sword against claws and icy spit. Mundus quickly realized he was no match for the everchanging organic sword. He played his final card, the freezing fart, hoping to stun Xelfan12 long enough for him to finish him off. PPPPPPPPPHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTT!!! This one was even worse than the last one, by tenfold at least. Xelfan12 fell again. Mundus reared over him. It seemed all over, until a tendril of fire shot out of Xelfan12 outstretched hand, right into the cloud of gas. The gas burst into the flames at once, and the fire spread back to it's source, up Mundus's ass. Mundus roared in agony as the flames shot up his butt, he was burning from the inside! All the gases from his farts gave fuel to the fire until finally he exploded. The pieces of him still flaming until they were nothing more than ashes. Xelkitti and Verath clapped extra hard for this show of pyrotechnics. Xelfan12 recovered enough to bow for his delighted audience.  
  
"So where's our answers?" asked Xelkitti, after they'd stopped applauding.  
  
"Oh, DAMN, I think we killed them all. George said they'd give us the answers if we defeated them, but we killed them all," said Verath.  
  
"Weren't we supposed to kill them all? I mean, that's the same as defeating, isn't it?" 


	23. Mike

There was a great deal of concern and yammering about this issue, until xelfan12 reached into his pocket. "Yeah, forgot about this." he said, holding up a translucent yellow stone. He gripped it in his hand, and it began to glow. He waved it around a bit, and then three green cloudy objects floated towards it. "These are the souls of the warriors we just killed." said Xelfan12, although everyone knew perfectly well what they were already.  
  
"Alright, now." said xelkitti. "Tell me, where is Dynast's hideout?" The first soul floated forward.  
  
"I will give you the hideout's longitude!" it said, in a phony wavering voice, that most stupid spiritual objects talk in. "0 degrees is the longitude."  
  
"Thank you," said Xelkitti. "Next!"  
  
"I will give you the latitude!" it said. "90 degrees north!"  
  
"Yup," said Xelfan12 "Next!"  
  
"I will give you the exact way to find it at that location!" said the third soul. "there will be a triangular rock. Push it over."  
  
"alright." said Verath. The three of them looked at each other.  
  
"0 degrees longitude...." said Xelkitti  
  
"90 degrees north latitude...." said Xelfan12.  
  
"Large, triangular rock...." said Verath. They all fell off of the rafter and headfirst onto the floor in agravation.  
  
"Grrrrrr!!!! Jeez! This guy has no taste! How cliche! Putting his base at the exact north pole! That's probably where we would've started looking for him anyway!" said Xelkitti, steaming.  
  
"And I wonder how many large, perfectly triangular rocks there are at exactly the north pole." said Verath.  
  
"All that... for nothing!" said Xelfan12. "Thanks for just that: nothing!" Xelfan12 waved the three souls away. They flew off, back into the great abyss.  
  
"Wait," said Xelkitti. "This sounds too obvious. We'll have to take caution in proceeding. This just doesn't seem right."  
  
"I agree, but we'll have to believe what those souls told us. They're our only source of information."  
  
"Alright." said Xelfan12. "Let's go, then." They all teleported in a flash, and moments later, they were at the north pole.  
  
"So, where's the triangular rock?" asked Xelkitti, looking around.  
  
"I have a feeling...." said Xelfan12. "FIREBALL!" he yelled, casting the spell straight into the ground. it was weakened purposely, so all it did was blast through and melt the snow and ice.  
  
"There we go!" said Verath, as he jumped down into the hole Xelfan12 had just made, freezing the sides as he went along so the walls wouldn't collapse. At the bottom of the hole, was a great pointed stone that looked somewhat like an arrow head sticking out of the ground. "I don't like the looks of this, but, here it goes!" Verath rammed into the stone, and it broke off of what seemed to be a bigger rock underneath. There was a loud roar, and the ground began to shake.  
  
"Oh crap! i hope this isn't what I think it is!" said Verath, quickly jumping out of the hole to join the others. There was a great crack, and a large behemoth rose out of the ground, it's head roughly the same size of the hole. Unfortunately for the trio, it's body was in proportion.  
  
"Damn! What the hell is that thing?" asked Xelkitti.  
  
"It's an ice Golem!" said Verath, staring at the top of it's head, where the stone triangle had apparently broken off of. "I knew this was a trap! Let's do something!" Xelkitti, Xelfan12, and Verath cast a triple fireball, but all three of them bounced off of the golem harmlessly, and hit the ground around them.  
  
"DAMNIT! IT"S IMMUNE TO MAGIC!" screamed Xelkitti, in frustration.  
  
"Let's try physical attacks, then!" said Xelfan12, as he ran forth, swinging his organic sword. The swords bounced off of the Golem, leaving less damage than a bug bite.  
  
"hold on!" said verath, an idea popping into his head. "Everyone! Help me cast a circular barrier around the golem! It's gotta be at leat 70 meters in diameter, and 70 meters below the surface!" xelkitti and Xelfan12 ran as fast as they could (pretty damn fast) and did what Verath said. "Now, fly up over the Golem and prepare to cast a dragone slave!" By this time, Xelkitti and Xelfan12 had caught onto the plan.  
  
"Dragon Slave!" they shouted in unison. Three surges of energy shot into the ground around the ice golem, melting the water, but not going out of the barrier. They had created some kind of pool of water, in which the ice golem was in up to his neck.  
  
"I think we all know what to do now." said xelfan12, as the all shouted "Freeze arrow!" and began pelting the water with thousands of freeze arrows. It was frozen solid in a matter of seconds.  
  
"Well, at least we're done with him." said Xelkitti, relieved. Just then, a figure rose out of the hole in which the triangular rock had been located.  
  
"Very good. You have proved your worth." said a voice, that was almost familiar to Xelfan12. "It's.... Dynast Grauscherra!" said Xelfan12, eager to interrogate him. But before he had a chance to open his mouth, Dynast motioned them in, and they had no choice but to obey. 


	24. Me

They walked in relative silence for a while. The tunnel Dynast led them down was covered with ice, as usual, with small globes of blue light at regular intervals. The dim light reflected off the surfaces of the ice, illuminating everything brighter than if they'd been alone. Needless to say, they provided no comfort from the bitter cold that seeped down even this deep. Soon, after passing several forks, they arrived a what appeared to be a sitting room. Four chairs surrounded a table set for tea. Wordlessly, Dynast sat, and they followed suit. After a round of iced tea, he finally spoke.  
  
"So, you are probably wondering why I wanted you to kill Phil," he said.  
  
"Who's Phil?" asked Xelkitti.  
  
"The one we called George," Xelfan12 explained to her.  
  
"Going on," said Dynast.  
  
"Yeah, actually we were wondering why you wanted us to kill George," said Verath.  
  
"It was just as you suspected, he knew too much," Dynast sipped his iced tea before continuing, "I don't see why it would concern you, you did kill him in the end." 


	25. Mike

"I doesn't concern us." said Verath. "we just don't like your style."  
  
"Yeah." said Xelfan12. "We don't agree to purposely having your own men killed....."  
  
"So," said Xelkitti. "Tell us all about your little plans, or we might send you back to see your comrades." Xelkitti cracked her knuckles. Dynast just laughed.  
  
"HA! Why would I tell you my plans? You'll probably just whisk them away back to Beastmaster. I'm sure she's dying to know what I'm doing! Hahahaha!"  
  
"What's so funny?" whispered Verath to Xelfan12.  
  
"I think he's just insane." said Xelfan12.  
  
"But," continued Dynast. "If you insist, I suppose i can share a bit of my plans with you." He stood up and began pacing back and forth while speaking. "You might have noticed that i now have some 'influence' in the door to door sales industry. You may wonder why that is?"  
  
"Yes, in fact we do." said Xelfan12.  
  
"Well, this is because by taking control over this industry, I can successfuly take over the world without lifting a finger, and without anyone knowing it was me."  
  
"But we'll know!" said Xelkitti.  
  
"Oh, but you don't matter. You won't have time to tell anybody." Dynast snapped his fingers, and the doors all locked and shut. 


	26. Me

"Okay," said Dynast, settling down in his chair comfortably, "Now that you can't go anywhere, I shall tell you my plans. Firstly, I am using preps to spread word of me. I have found preps, though extremely annoying and oustandingly stupid, are quite adept at influencing the media. So through these preps everyone shall soon know of me, the Mighty Dynast Grausherra! Lord of the Ice, Ruler of All That is Cold!"  
  
"Pretty corny title," Xelkitti muttered to her two companions, who agreed. Dynast, however, either ignored this or was too worked up to hear it. Whatever the case, he continued talking. "These open-minded leaders of the tomorrow will worship me, making world domination much easier! And, at the same time, salespeople, whom I have power and are now in my service, will seem to innocently worm their way into the lives of people, and brainwash them! Isn't it brilliant?!" Dynast was pacing the room now, yelling, his eyes held a mad gleam. He threw his hands into the air, "To infiltrate the minds and society of these pathetic humans so slowly and secretly, poisoning them from the inside! They won't know what is happening until it is too late!" He laughed a very well practiced evil villain laugh.  
  
The three Mazoku stared at the Dark Lord. Dynast was obviously insane. Why would he go against everyone just to rule the world? And besides that, his plot could not possibly work. For one, all the preps were dead, and for another, even if they weren't all he'd have would be an army of burger- flipping fry-tossing fast food cooks.  
  
"Oh," Dynast stopped laughing and seemed almost normal again, "I forgot to introduce you to my partner in this ingenius scheme of mine, Deep Sea Dolphin!" DSD appeared beside Dynast in a column of water that disspated into nothingness as she materialized. Xelkitti's hands flew to her wrists where her two most easily drawn knives were carried, Verath and Xelfan12 did similarly.  
  
"Hello my sweets," said Dolphin by way of greeting, then her eyes fell upon the sugar, "OOOOOOOOOOOH!!! SUGAR!!!" She snatched it from it's place beside the teapot and curled up in Dynast's chair to lick it as a cat would with a bowl of cream.  
  
"Two insane Dark Lords working together, oh fun," said Verath, sarcastically.  
  
"I'm outta here," said Xelfan12, looking at Dolphin as if she were some kind of time bomb that was going to blow any second.  
  
"Oh, you're not going anywhere," said Dynast, his voice was soft but full of menace. Even if he WAS insane, he wasn't one to be messed with, his power was still much greater than theirs. Ice demons began emerging from the walls. They came in all shapes and sizes, from tiny ground squirrels to enormous floating kill whales. "You're going to stay here, for the rest of eternity..." 


	27. Mike

"Yes, you'll be staying here forever. For death is eternal." Dynast Started to walk out of the room, when he stopped. "Wait, you. Come here." he motioned to Verath, and Verath followed.  
  
"You think you can handle these ice thingies while I'm gone?" he asked Xelfan12 and Xelkitti.  
  
"No problem." said Xelkitti, turning around and cutting a ground squirrel in half with her death scissors. "It's a shame.... it was so cute! But anyway, KILL THE SQUIRRELS!" The shrieks of the squirrels, among many other icy animals, were heard down the hall, as DSD continued laughing and consuming the sugar.  
  
"Oh god... why did I leave that out there with her?" asked Dynast, to no one in particular. "She's a screw ball to begin with, but add some sugar...."  
  
"Hey, you're just a few sugar cubes short of a sugar high, too." said Verath. Dynast spun around and struck him upside the head, freezing his whole body.  
  
"Hah, that doesn't work, remember? Or were you not watching your minions being slaughtered." He put an emphasis on the word "slaughtered," as if to suggest something.  
  
"And that, my friends, is exactly why I've brought you here." said Dynast, sounding unusually happy.  
  
"Why?" asked Verath. "Because we kicked your minions' frozen asses?"  
  
"Stop being so smart mouthed with me. I'm only here to make you an offer." Dynast stopped, knocked on the ice wall, and it opened. There were two comfortable looking chairs. At least they would have looked comfortable if they hadn't been frozen solid.  
  
"Damn. Don't you think this is a little excessive? My ass is getting frostbite." said verath, having sat down.  
  
"Fine." said Dynast. The ice on the chairs melted.  
  
"Now my ass is wet!" said Verath, getting annoyed.  
  
"There's no pleasing you." said Dynast, calmly. "Now, to business. I have asked you here so you could have a rare and exciting opportunity."  
  
"Yeah?" asked Verath. "I'm listening."  
  
"I want you to be my General." said Dynast, as if it was a simple request.  
  
"WHA?" Verath exlaimed, both shocked, and anxious. "I don't know what to say. I mean, yes I do. No!" Dynast simply laughed to himself.  
  
"It's not as easy as that. Did I mention that, not only will you get to share part of the world once it's been dominated by me, but that you will also get a fair power boost?" This sparked up Verath's attention.  
  
"Really...." he said, now sounding interesting. "And may I ask what happened to Sherra?"  
  
Dynast groaned. Why did everyone ask him what happened to his last general?  
  
"She uh..... died." said Dynast.  
  
"How?" asked Verath.  
  
"Uhhh..... murder..." said Dynast, again in an almost whisper.  
  
"By who?" asked Verath, beaming.  
  
"LINA INVERSE!" screamed Dynast, super pissed.  
  
"Will I have protection from that sort of thing this time around?" asked Verath.  
  
"Yes," replied Dynast. "You will have more power and protection than Sherra ever had."  
  
"Hmmm....." said Verath.... "I'll think about it...."  
  
Meanwhile, Xelfan12 and Xelkitti had been so bored with killing the ice beasts, they had begun to play ice hockey with the bits that fell to the floor.  
  
"Hah! Goal!" yelled Xelfan12.  
  
"No!" shouted Xelkitti. "Your goal is between DSD's legs!" she pointed to where Deep Sea Dolphins legs dangled off of the table. She had been asleep after sugar high wore off.  
  
"NO! My goal is over there, near the fireplace!" Xelfan12 screamed. DSD woke up.  
  
"What? Oh yeah. I was supposed to be doing something with these two." DSD looked blankly around. "Uhhh... Can't remember." she said, and Xelkitti and Xelfan12 fell over. "Oh yeah! Now I remember!" she walked towards the two, who were suprisingly showing signs of fear.  
  
Verath and Dynast were walking down the hall, when Verath heard Xelfan12 and Xelkitti screaming.  
  
"Looks like DSD's done her job." said Dynast, happily.  
  
"Damn." said Verath. "It must be pretty bad to make em scream and yell like that!" He ran into the room. Xelkitti Screamed again. But now Verath realized it was a scream of aggravation.  
  
"NO! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! YOU CAN"T TELL ME TO 'GO FISH' IN A POKER GAME!" Xelkitti yelled. DSD looked sad. By the looks of it, Xelfan12 and Xelkitti were trying to teach DSD how to play poker.  
  
"DAMNIT DEEP SEA DOLPHIN!" screamed Dynast. "I KNEW YOU WERE CRAZY, BUT NOT STUPID!"  
  
"Well, sometimes those things come in a package," said Verath, motioning towards Deep Sea Dolphin. "And sometimes they get sold separately." He motioned toward Xelfan12, Xelkitti, and himself. "We bought the crazy part."  
  
Dynast was infuriated. "Well, maybe I can bring this little party to a halt by introducing my newest general!" He motioned for Verath to step forward. Xelfan12 and Xelkitti gasped. DSD held her cards upside down and gasped.  
  
"It's the same thing upside down!" she said in amazement. But no one paid attention. They were all staring at Verath. He gave a wink to Xelfan12 and Xelkitti, but they were far to shocked to notice. 


	28. Me

"Sherra was killed by Lina," said Verath, winking again. Xelfan12 and Xelkitti were still too much in shock to notice anything. Verath tried again, and again, and again, and soon he looked like he himself was traumatized. Xelfan12 and Xelkitti were STILL in a state of shock. After about ten minutes Xelkitti slowly blinked.  
  
"Okay, did I hear that right?" she asked, "You're his GENERAL?!"  
  
"Yeah," said Verath, nonchalantly. He'd stopped trying to get their attention after his eye muscles started aching five minutes back.  
  
"Why?" asked Xelfan12.  
  
"Power and protection," said Verath, simply. He winked. THIS time Xelkitti and Xelfan12 got the message. They got up.  
  
"Well, in that case, we have no more reason staying here," said Xelfan12, stiffly. He and Xelkitti teleported out. Dynast, who'd fallen asleep while they had been in shock woke up as the air rushed into the places they had stood to fill the space. It took him a few moments to get oriented then.  
  
"They left," answered Verath. Dynast zeroed in on DSD.  
  
"DOLPHIN! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO KILL THEM!!!" he yelled at her. She looked up from her cards...  
  
"YOU STUPID-"  
  
and saw his face twisted in anger...  
  
"INCOMPETENET-"  
  
her eyes welled up...  
  
"COMPLETELY USELESS-"  
  
"WHAAAAAAAAA DOLPHIN IS SORRY!!!" she wailed, throwing her arms around him and sobbed into his chest, her tears freezing as they came. Verath was amazed by the amount of water that could spill from those two sapphire eyes of hers. "THE LITTLE PINK CHIMPMUNKS RAN THROUGH MY HEAD AND STOLE IT AWAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!! DOLPHIN IS SORRY SHE DIDN'T HAVE HER PRETTY HAMMER TO SMASH THEM!!!"  
  
"Erm, Dolphin, that wasn't what I was talking about..." said Dynast, trying to pry the insane Dark Lord off. Despite her slender and petite appearance, DSD was astoundingly strong. Verath had a hard time containing himself at the sight of the two Dark Lords.  
  
"AND THE PICKLES TOLD ME-"  
  
"DOLPHIN! It's okay!" lied Dynast, "You can let go of me now."  
  
"Really?" asked Dolphin, "The werewolves won't eat my toes?"  
  
"Yeah whatever," said Dynast. Dolphin let go but her head was still buried in his robes. "Uh...Dolphin?"  
  
"Dolphin cried too much and got her face frozen to Dynast's robes," she explained. That was probably the only sane thing Verath had heard her say his entire life.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" 


	29. Mike

"Awwww...." said Verath. "That's about the cutest thing I've seen all day! I'm gonna take a picture!" He pulled out a small camera. "Won't your parents be proud to see how ickle Grauscherry has grown up to be a big boy, and gotten himself a widdle girlfriend!" Verath said this in an extremely annoying little baby voice. It infuriated Dynast. "L-SAMA! YOU KNOW VERY WELL I HAVE NO PARENTS! JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE MY GENERAL DOESN'T MEAN I WILL TOLERATE THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR!" DSD heard dynast shouting again, and immediately started crying. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "What did dolphin do now?" Dynast saw the futility of this situation, and began crying himself. "Oh god! *sob* What the hell did i do to deserve this? *sob*." Dynast's crying seemed to upset DSD even more. Verath was crying as well, but because of the pain in his sides from laughing so hard. "Alright! I'll let you two lovebirds go. But you make such a cute couple...." Verath walked over to DSD. She stopped crying. "Ok, we'll do this like a band-aid, nice a fast." "Alright. Dolphin understands." said DSD, with the innocence of a child. "On the count of three! One.... Two...." Verath put his hands on DSD's head. "THREE!" he pulled DSD'd head. "YAAAAAAAAAAAIIIII!!!!!" she screamed, more in surprise than in pain, for it was highly doubted that DSD knew that three came after two. Unfortunately, her head was still stuck to Dynast's robes. Even more unfortunate was Dynast, who no longer was wearing robes. "Verath is right!" said DSD, admiring Dynast's underwear. "You have grown to be a big boy! No more pull-ups for you!" Verath began laughing hysterically, but DSD had not intended it to be a joke. She began prowling around the floor like a cat, the robes still stuck to her face, singing "Dolphin is free! Hooray for me!" Dynast just stood there, shocked, amazed, and sort of cold. "Oh dear god...." thought Verath, hardly able to stop laughing. "The way this is going, I probably won't even have to stop Dynast. I could leave it all up to DSD." He watched as she curled up in a ball and went to sleep, wrapped in Dynast's robes. "Well, now that that's over," said Dynast, materializing new robes. "I can start you off on your first mission." "Alright!" thought Verath. "This is where my plan all comes together. I'll just meet up with Xelfan12 and Xelkitti." "Your mission," continued Dynast. "Will be to hunt down your two friends. This will be a test of your loyalty." "bingo." said verath. "But just in case you're planning something." said Dynast. "I hope you know that I can control all ice mozakus!" A wave of pain shot through Verath's body. "Damn! That hurts!" he said, to Dynasts pleasure. "Hmmm.... most of my minions would have blacked out. You're tough." "Hehehehe......" laughed Verath. "It's a good thing I'm half lightning ryuzaku," thought verath. "Or this would be one major screw up on my part." He teleported out of the room. When he was gone, Dynast looked at DSD. "You know, she is kind of cute...." he said. "HA! Knew it!" Verath's dissembodied voice rang out from the ceiling. "Get to work!" screamed Dynast. "Alright! For real this time!" And verath left to go look for Xelkitti and Xelfan12. 


	30. Me

Xelkitti and Xelfan12 were lounging on a beach when Verath arrived. They weren't dressed to go to a beach. Xelkitti wore a black hoody and baggy pants swathed in chains while Xelfan12 was dressed more normally with jeans and a longsleeve. It must have been about a hundred degrees, though the temperature was falling with the sun. Going to the north pole dressed in business garb makes one kind of grateful for warmth, even if one is a Mazoku. The beach was somewhere close to the equator.  
  
"Xelkitti, Xelfan12!" greeted Verath.  
  
"Hey, Verath, took you long enough," said Xelkitti, cheerfully bounding over, "What'd Dynast send you to?"  
  
"I'm supposed to kill you two," he replied. Blunt and straighforward.  
  
"That sucks," commented Xelfan12, his face falling.  
  
"Yeah, we'll hafta kill you back," agreed Xelkitti. Threats lain, the two opposing parties got into battle stances. Faces that had been lit with innocent joy now darkened by the prospect of battling a friend. Hardened by duty. The few couples still left on the beach fled, quite wisely too. For a few precious moments, there was nothing but the sound of waves lapping up onto sand, then...  
  
"FIREBALL!" yelled Xelkitti and Xelfan12 simultaneously. THe double fireball tore through the air at Verath, just as he, yelled-  
  
"FREEZE ARROW!" The two conflicting forces hit in midair and combust, producing an awesome explosion. Before the rumblings had yet to die away, however, Xelkitti and Xelfan12 were already launching their next assault.  
  
"DISFANG!" cast Xelfan12.  
  
"Dark Mist!" called out Xelkitti. Instantly Verath was assaulted by a shadow dragon and all of them were surrounded by a mist blacker than a Mazoku's soul. Even magical light wouldn't work in this. While Xelkitti was disabled by this, Xelfan12 was in his element, and it was a chance they were willing to take. The Disfang would keep Verath from teleporting and meanwhile Xelfan12 could assualt him and Xelkitti would just have to attack blind.  
  
Verath silently cursed himself for not having expected this. It was a tactic Xelfan12 didn't use often.  
  
"Howl Freeze!" he yelled, hoping the blizzard would hamper their attacks. It didn't do much good. The Flare Lances and Flare Bits kept coming. Well, if that didn't work..."HELL BLAST!" The shadow dragon problem was now resolved. "Guumeon!" The magical shield wrapped itself around Verath like a comforting blanket, blocking the offending spells. Before his opponents could catch on to his ploy he cast a Dug Haut though he knew that even if it did suceed it would only be temporary. He teleported from the Dark Mist to the air over the ocean. Xelkitti and Xelfan12 followed, greeting him with a double Burst Flare, breaking the Guumeon.  
  
He barely got ouf of there in time, due to the fact he left them a nice Freeze Rain. Xelkitti took out the ball of ice with a Fireball as Xelfan12 rounded on Verath but was blown away by a barrage of Freeze Bullets. Xelkitti managed to hit Verath with a well-aimed Flare Arrow and Xelfan12 just barely missed him with a Val Flare. Verath returned both in kind with his own Val Flares. Xelkitti and Xelfan12 were shocked at the amount of damage they recieved. By becoming Dynast's general Verath had gained a lot of new power.  
  
Now the battle increased in ferociousness as everyone gave it their all. The landscape suffered more than the fighters because now they were teleporting at high speeds. Literally chasing each other across the skies. The air grew thick with spells, mostly of either fire or ice origin. Verath now fought with a Balus Rod ten times stronger than usual, because he'd infused several Balus Rods into the one long whip of power he now held. Xelkitti had also started using weaponry, alternating between throwing sharp enchanted projectiles, slashing with her enhanced longsword, and casting powerful fire spells. Xelfan12 still kept to his spells. Then, amidst the flurry of teleporting, casting spells, and dodging weapons and spells, Verath managed to break through Xelkitti's defenses and deal a fatal Icicle Lance.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" screamed Xelfan12, Xelkitti froze and shattered in seconds. Verath didn't stick around to check out his handywork. His anger stoked, Xelfan12's barrage of spells doubled as he sought to avenge his fallen comrade. "DAMN YOU VERATH! I'LL KILL YOU!" he screamed, "YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!!!" 


	31. Mike

"hah! I do believe that we've been through something like this before..." verath said, casually avoiding Xelfan12's strike. He pointed behind him, as Xelkitti's fragments dissapeared in a flash of flame. She jumped up from the ground, and came to verath's back. "Bram Blazer!" she shouted, and the bolt of energy went straight through Verath, and narrowly missed xelfan12. "Good show." said Verath. "But i now have accelerated healing, as well." the spiritual and physical wounds closed. "Now, to business. Arc Brass!" An extremely powerful arc brass rained down upon Xelfan12 and Xelkitti, stunning them just enough for Verath to use his next spell. "Now for one of my new favorites! Dynast breath!" Two dynast breaths shot forward, freezing Xelkitti and Xelfan12. "As you know, I can easily kill you right now. This spell works on mozaku as well, you see." In the blink of an eye, Verath moved the two floating, iced mozaku out of the way, created two new figures, and broke them. "Ha! that was easy!" he said. "Good work, Verath." said Dynast's voice from inside his head. 'You are free to do what you want until I call for you again." "Thank you, master." said Verath. He then flew down to where the two frozen Mozakus stood. "Flare arrow." a small flare arrow shot into each of them, and they steadily began to thaw. "Huh? What happened?" asked Xelfan12, rubbing his eyes. "Oh yeah! You dirty bastard trai-" "Shut up. It was all part of the plan." said Verath. "Dynast sees and hears what I do when he wants to. He was watching just then." "But you attacked us!" said Xelkitti, trying to make a point. "What are a couple of cuts and scratches between friends, eh?" "You tried to drive icicles through our hearts." said xelfan12, extremely seriously. "uhhhh. It had to be realistic. Now come on. I have something to show you guys." They all walked a few feet, then teleported at the same time. They arrived at what seemed to be a dungeon. "behold! The fruits of my labor!" said verath, pulling on a chord. Two glass cases were revealed. Inside, where two Zenafa armors. Xelkitti and Xelfan12 were shocked. "What the.... When did you-" "I made them when Dynast gave me a free sample of the powers i could get if i were his general. Only golden dragons and elves can really make them, but these are virtually flawless, anyway. I believe you were playing ice hockey during the time I spent doing this?" "Oh....." said Xelfan12. "I wanna try it on!" "Me too!" said xelkitti. "Wait! Before you do, there's something I should tell-" but it was too late. They had opened the cases. Instantly, two voices rang out. it sounded like a barber shop quartet, minus two barbers. And with armor at any rate. "I'm Bob!" said the armor, who's name was apparently Bob. "And I'm Bill!" "And we'll....." they said together. "Help you kick Dynast's ass! We'll protect against Dynast brass! We'll protect against astral spells, and we'll give Dynast a piece of hell!" sang the two pieces of armor. Xelkitti and xelfan12 looked stunned. "Ummm... I really don't know what to say." said Xelfan12. "Ditto." said Xelkitti. "yes, well, as i said before, they're almost flawless. This shouldn't be too much of a problem, unless we want to plan a sneak attack." Just then, Dynast broke into Verath's thoughts. Verath cupped his hands over his eyes. "Verath! Where are you! Are you blind? What's that singing?" asked Dynast, in a frenzy of questions. "Uhh... I'm at the theater. It relaxes me, so I thought I'd close my eyes." The zenafa armor had begun to sing in latin. "Well, just get over here quickly. I have another job for you. Dynast out. heheheh. I've always wanted to say that." Dynast exited verath's mind. "Whew! that was a close one!" verath said. "You guys take that armor. I trust you know how to use it?" xelkitti and Xelfan12 nodded faintly. They were still in shock from the musical stylings of Bill and Bob, who were now in the middle of "When the saints come marching in." "Be ready tonight at 9, ok? I'll find you guys. And remember, I'm still your friend!" Verath turned to go, but turned around. "Oh yeah, almost forgot. ZenafaMute!" He said, and the Zenafa armors voice shut up, although they were still clearly singing to themselves. "Just say ZenafaUnmute if you want it back on-" they started singing again. "What the hell. You know what to do. 9 oclock tonight. Bring the armor. Be ready I have a plan. Goodbye." He teleported off in a hurry, leaving a very shocked and surprised Xelfan12 and Xelkitti. 


	32. Me

Xelkitti turned and looked at Xelfan12, who mirrored her bewildered expression.  
  
"So, shall we go, then?" she asked, looking tentatively at the two suits of singing, dancing armor.  
  
"To go or not to go, the question here is not" sang Bill  
  
"How to go, quickly so, we don't sit here and rot" Bob finished for him.  
  
"Let us go afar and fast  
  
Hurry to kick Dynast's ass!" they chorused, then bowed, expecting applause. When there was none, they went back to their music, apparently undaunted.  
  
"ZenafaMute," snapped Xelfan12, "Can't think with those stupid things carrying on like that."  
  
"To think we actually have to put them ON," added Xelkitti, looking distastefully at the waltzing pair. They were powerful, true, but did Verath HAVE to make them so...ridiculously BARDLIKE?! she thought, furiously, there is no way in hell I'm walking around dressed in Zenafa armor that sings and dances. A solution came to her just then.  
  
"Illusion!" she said.  
  
"What?" asked Xelfan12, who had been imersed in his own thoughts.  
  
"We cast an illusion when we put on the armor so it doesn't look like we're wearing them," she explained. Xelfan12 looked thrilled.  
  
At exactly nine, Xelkitti wearing Bob, and Xelfan12 donned in Bill, were waiting for Verath at the Hot Topic in Burnsvill Mall. It was a pitiful excuse for a store, barely big enough to fit twenty people. But Xelkitti was amazed at the amount of STUFF they could get into such cramped compartments. Shirts filled the two walls up to the ceiling, gothic dresses filled another. The last was stocked with ornaments of all kinds. Racks of baggy pants and cases displaying disturbing stickers and other small articles took up what floor they could without inhibiting elbow room. A shelf of Johnnys was tucked away in a corner. Xelkitti wandered over to them and began reading, though she kept feelers out for any opposing forces, and Verath. At nine o' four Verath walked in. Xelfan12 was at his side almost as he stepped past the iron gates that guarded the entrance. Xelkitti joined them moments later. Xelfan12 raised a questioning eyebrow at Verath, who was usually one time for important things such as this.  
  
"Sorry, Dynast held me up, explaining his...project and keeping Dolphin under control," he explained, "You guys wearing the armor?"  
  
"Yeah, unfortunately," sighed Xelfan12.  
  
"Come on, they're not that bad, I spent lots of time making them...five minutes, I think."  
  
"Anyways, when do we attack?" asked Xelkitti, eagerly. Always ready for a battle, thought Verath.  
  
"Okay, extend your illusion and I'll tell you," he said. There was a slight tingling that crawled across his skin and then he was looking at Xelfan12 and Xelkitti wearing the two suits of Zenafa armor. They started walking, so as to avoid stares. People tend to notice more when you're standing still then when you're moving.  
  
"Whatever we say will be cloaked," said Xelkitti, "People hear and see us chatting about anime and killing things."  
  
"Thanks Kitti," said Verath, then his carefree expression dropped to reveal one of unreadable blankness. "Dynast doesn't yet know we have his salespeople trapped in the alternate dimension that looks like a waiting room. He plans to use them full force in two days with a meeting afterwards. We have to kill him before then. I don't excatly know how much of a problem Dolphin will pose, she's quite unpredictable."  
  
"What about the salespeople? And where will we attack?" asked Xelfan12.  
  
"Oh, we'll have to kill the salespeople afterwards, Xellos-sama's orders, of course. I'm going to try to lure Dynast to Wolfpup Island so his powers will be greatly reduced, but if that doesn't work we'll just attack wherever he is." Wolfpup Island was their quarters, it was about half the size of Wolfpack Island and a quick wolfpaddle away. There were so many shields and spells around both islands it was near impossible to detect. Teleporting was magically banned to prevent unwanted visitors, except in Zelas's throne room and Xellos's room, which was where they needed to go first most of the time, for reporting. There were also spells to bind Mazoku powers other than those of the Juu-ou-samas and their servents, which made it an ideal place for a battle with a Dark Lord. This said, it was Xelkitti's turn for questions.  
  
"What if Dolphin poses a problem?" she asked.  
  
"Oh...we'll get her on a sugar high half an hour before and she should be asleep by then," resolved Verath.  
  
"So, usual battle strategy? Or should we come up with a new one just for Dynast?" inquired Xelkitti.  
  
"I suppose the usual shall do," said Verath, "If Dynast falls for the bait and ends up at Wolfpup."  
  
"Well, it's always better to have an alternate plan, just in case," said Xelfan12.  
  
"Over some tea, of course," added Xelkitti, eyeing the coffee shop they were approaching, "Please please please please pretty pretty pretty gorgeously please?" she begged.  
  
"Hm..." said Verath, indecidedly. He was doing this on purpose, of course. "I don't know..."  
  
"PLEAAAAAAAAAAAASE!!!" Xelkitti was now bouncing around in anticipation.  
  
"Maybe if you beg on your knees..." Xelfan12 suggested casually.  
  
So Xelkitti bounced around on her knees in anticipation, which looked quite odd, especially to those who were looking at the illusion cast around them.  
  
"Okay then," said Verath, laughing.  
  
"THANK YOU!" She ran off to the shop.  
  
A few minutes later they sat sipping green tea and poring over a mess of papers with sloppy sketches and notes everywhere.  
  
"Okay, assuming he survives the triple Dragonslave, the constant Flare bit, the double Burst Flare, the Lightning Rain/Freeze Rain combo-" 


	33. Mike

"Nah, he couldn't. Could he?" asked Xelfan12, with just a hint of concern in his voice. "He very well may be able to, the way he's been talking." said verath. "Whaaaa?" asked xelkitti and xelfan12 in unison. "Well, remember those plans that he kept me late for?" Verath asked. Xelfan12 and xelkitti nodded. "Well, it seems that he's getting help from a higher power somehow. "No way..." said xelfan12. "It couldn't be! Could it?" asked xelkitti, quite alarmed. "I'm afraid it is." said Verath, grimly. This really shouldn't be discussed here, however. Let's go outside. They gathered up their diagrams, and headed out to the parking lot. "that's my car, over there." said Verath, pointing to an empty space. A large black van appeared. "it will look suspicious if we just hang around near the dumpster." "Are you kidding?" asked Xelkitti. She pointed to the dumpster, where there were several dozen whacked out looking teens. "Uhh, what he meant was that he doesn't want to be mislabeled as a crack addict." Said Xelfan12. "Besides, my van has that little flip down movie thing!" added Verath. "Fine. It's the van." They went inside the van, and Verath immediately began where he left off, and in an instantly serious tone. "Alright. As i said, he's getting backup from a higher power, and as you two have probably realized, that power is..." "Shrabranigdo?' asked Xelfan12, although he was confident the answer was yes. "Of course! Who else?" said Verath. "And to make matters worse, he's got two friggin pieces." "What? But how?" Asked Xelkitti. "Well, he showed them to me, and they're encased in, you guessed it, ice." answered verath. "they were apparently found at the earth's two poles." "but how is that gonna help Dynast?" asked Xelfan12. "Well, as you know, Dynast does control ice, and the stuff Shabranigdo's trapped in is pretty much impermiable." "So," continued Xelkitti. "Shabranigdo's at Dynast's mercy?" "bingo." said Verath. " But it doesn't add up!" exclaimed Xelfan12. "aren't the Mozaku of this world supposed to be serving Shabranigdo? Shouldn't he be helping him out of the goodness... I mean because he's obligated to?" "Ordinarily, that's true." said Verath. "but Dynast is, as you've noticed, an insane crackpot, and ol' Ruby Eyes has promised him that he'd deliver him as much power as he wanted, as long as he would free him in the end. But that's not all." "Damn! What else can there be!?" Asked Xelkitti. "Well, unless you've forgotten, we're not exactly humans, are we?" asked Verath. "We're mozaku as well, and are therefore supposed to free shabranigdo as well." "but... ummm... there's got to be something! We don't have to! Can you imagine how much Shabranigdo will boss us around?" asked Xelfan12. "Well, technically, we'll only have to free him if we have an order." said Verath. "And I don't believe Xellos has said anything about this." "Good." said Xelkitti. "No, still not good enough." said Xelfan12. "You're forgetting that Shabranigdo can order us around, too." "My sentiments exactly." said verath. "but, there is one way to get around that." "What's that?" asked Xelfan12, eagerly. "Well," said Verath. "Shabranigdo, while still imprisoned, can't reach out to use unless we allow him." "And how is it that we allow him to do this?" Asked Xelkitti. "Well," continued Verath. "He can only do this if we reveal ourselves to be mozaku by using some of our powers. Otherwise, we can resist." "Don't tell me...." said Xelfan12. 'We'll have to fight on a human level?" Asked Xelkitti. 'I'm afraid so." said Verath. "but that's where your Zenafa armor comes in. Along with the singing, you'll find I made a few more changes to the original design." "What about you?" asked Xelfan12 to verath. "He is part ryuzaku, remember?" said Xelkitti. "Right. I can use that to my advantage." said Verath. "But why do I doubt that this will be enough?" asked xelkitti. "Because it won't." answered Xelfan12. "Our original triple dragon slave plan won't work, because Shabranigdo will have an immunity to it, and when he's channelling his power to Dynast, Dynast will have that immunity, too." "But then how?" asked Xelkitti. "Well, that's where this comes in." Verath said, as he produced a piece of paper. "Me and some 'friends' were working on it." 'But this... it can't be!" said Xelkitti, in amazement. "And it very well may not be." said Verath. He pulled back the paper, which was now revealed to have instructions on how to control the lord of nightmares. "that's impossible!" said Xelfan12. "i never said it was possible!" said Verath. 'All it is is a theory. As you know, some spells that call upon the lord of nightmares use all of her power. In theory, by using the same spell at the same time with different people, we can seperate the lord of nightmares, so that she is easier to control for each person, although if aimed at the same target, will have a full result." "Sound good to me." said Xelfan12. "No, but what the problem is..." said verath. "Is that the Lord of nightmares may very well be able to be in more than one place at once. And a triple giga slave?" "I see your point..." said Xelkitti. "Well, that is why it's a last resort." said verath. "There is a simpler way." Xelkitti was ahead of him, though. "yeah. We could attack Dynast before he begins to channel Shabranigdo's powers." "Exactly." said Verath. "but to know when he is starting, we'd need an insider. Not me. It would be too risky. He doesn't let me near Shabranigdo, and he doesn't trust me 100 percent, anyway." "Who then?" asked Xelfan12 impatiently. "may i re-introduce you too...." Verath motioned toward the darke back of the van. "...Deep Sea Dolphin." DSD heard her name, and stumbled over the seat, and fell in place next to Xelkitti. "Howdy." she said, as if she were just an old friend in for a visit. "But.... I thought you were helping Dynast!" stammerred Xelfan12. "No, Dolphin no longer helps the baka hentai man. He hit on me, he did." Verath slapped his face. "It's true. i had to watch it. Don't ask. Just. Don't. Ask." "Well, anyhow, she's on our side now." Xelfan12 said. "You do understand," said Xelkitti to DSD. "That what Dynast is doing is not supposed to happen? That it disrupts the balance of careful planning and the entire Mozaku race?" DSD nodded. "I will do it for you. I will watch Dynast and his evil popsicle." "Uhhh... I'm assuming that she mean Shabranigdo when she says 'evil popsicle'?" said Xelfan12. "Me too." said Verath. "Now, the plan so far is that we shall wait on DSD's info, then when we have a date, we shall plan accordingly." Everyone nodded. "Good. Now, at the same time tomorrow night, be ready. We must begin our training." Everyone nodded again, and teleported away. Then the black van slowly faded out of view. 


	34. Me

In the now invisible black van, Verath wore a mask of worry. In the battle against Dynast, Dynast would most definitely use his weakness as general against him. He thought back to the nasty shock Dynast had given him before leaving on his first mission. Dynast had said most generals would have blacked out. He had been saved this indignity by the ryuuzoku blood that coursed through his veins. He sighed. He'd refrained from telling the others about this because he didn't want them to worry, but at the moment he was regretting his decision. If Dynast did use that power, he'd be almost useless as a fighter. Times like these made him wish he was as accomplished a masochist as some of the other Mazoku. On Wolfpup Island, Xelkitti and Xelfan12 were looking through the diagrams they'd drawn, sorting them into piles. One pile was diagrams that would work if they had to fight on a human level, one was if they attacked Dynast before Shabrinigdo channelled power to him, and one was for ones that didn't work. That was the smallest pile. Xelfan12 plucked the last diagram from the table, it was the one with the spell to summon the Lord of Nightmares. "Who do you think came up with this?" he asked, looking at the intricate inscriptions and notes that covered the piece of paper. "Someone with crappy handwriting," said Xelkitti, "THis stuff is barely legible." "I can read it," said Xelfan12, "See, it says the incantation over here, and here's the chaos words, and-" "You've been reading Verath's handwriting way too long," muttered Xelkitti, who couldn't make head or tails of the scribbling. 


	35. Mike

"Yeah, well, at least I can read the plans. Now.let's see who Verath's 'friends' were who was helping him work on this" xelfan12 flipped over the paper.  
  
"Here's Verath's signature..." said xelkitti, underlining the sloppy signature of Verath's real name. "And what are these?" she pointed to the two other signatures, and tried to sound out the letters. "S-i-g-p? Damn. I'm beginning to prefer Verath's handwriting."  
  
"At least it's almost legible. Whoever signed this has got to be official or something. I mean, look at all those underlines!" Xelfan12 said this in amazement, as he began to count the squiggly lines, but quickly gave up. "We can ask Verath who wrote these when we see him next."  
  
"Right. In the meantime, we can play around with the Zenafa armor. We need practice anyway."  
  
They stood up, already in the armor.  
  
"Alright. Let's see if we can figure out some of those new features Verath was hinting about. Wait. What the hell is that?" Xelkitti pointed to a spot on Xelfan12's armor. It looked like a dragon. It was right around the panel you would have to touch to get in, if you weren't it's owner.  
  
"What?" asked Xelfan12, getting out of the armor to look. He tapped it twice, and the Zenafa armor took a swing at him. It also stopped singing. "What in the fu-" xelfan12 was blind sided by the second swinging arm of the Zenafa armor. Xelfan12 stepped back and the armor stopped.  
  
"Wow! an auto defense mechanism. I guess it's to prevent theft?" xelkitti said.  
  
"An alarm would have been nice." said Xelfan12, slightly pissed off. He had a huge gash on his face, but it quickly healed up. "Well, I'm getting back into it at any rate." Xelfan12 ran in so fast, the Zenafa armor couldn't even detect him.  
  
"There. Now, what else can it do?" xelkitti got out of her armor. "hmmmm... let's see.... Maybe if I say... Zenafametamorphose!" The Zenafa armor reacted to the command, and crumpled up into a small cube. "uhhhh... useful. Especially when I'm inside it." said Xelkitt sarcastically.  
  
"Try a more specific command. Like morphsomething." suggested xelfan12.  
  
"Fine. zenafametamorphoseDragon." The small cube exploded into a large platey dragon. "So. Cool." said Xelkitti.  
  
"Hmmmmm..." said Xelfan12, stepping out of his armor. "Command!"  
  
The Zenafa armor responded, by standing at attention. "Chop down the tree!" Xelfan12 barked, and the zenafa armor complied.  
  
"Go disco dancing!" suggested Xelkitti. Xelfan12 issued the command, and the Zenafa armor began dancing, supplying its own music.  
  
"How wonderful." said Xelfan12. Many hours later, they were still experimenting with the command function.  
  
"Ahhh...I think Castaway is even better played by two Zenafa armors than Tom Hanks and that volleyball." said Xelkitti.  
  
"I agree. Bob's acting was so much better than the volleyball's." "Well, let's move on. We have a couple more plans to go through," said Xelfan12, continuing where he left off and leafing through a noticeably shorter stack of papers.  
  
Hey! look!" exclaimed Xelkitti. "Here are some forgotten spells!"  
  
"Lemme see." said Xelfan12. "Hmmmm...Scirroco blast, huh? Why don't you try it?"  
  
"Yeah! Yeah! Why don't I try it?" said xelkitti excitedly, and jumped over to a clear spot on the floor. "Hey. This says it surrounds me with fire. I can already do that."  
  
"No, this is astral fire. It will damage things astrally, as well as physically. And dynast is ice. This could give us an edge." Xelkitti read the incantation slowly. It was not in English, or any other language she knew for that matter.  
  
"Uhhh. There. Now wha-" Xelkitti's body burst into blue flames.  
  
"Excellent! Amazing!" exclaimed Xlfan12. But then the fires went out. Xelkitti grabbed him by the throat.  
  
"It doesn't surround me in flames! It set me on fire! No wonder why it was a forgotten spell!"  
  
"Geez. Well, do it again, but cast a flare seal."  
  
"NOOOOOOOO!!!! YOU DO IT!" xelkitti pushed xelfan12 into the same spot she had stood. The stone floor had burnt.  
  
"Alright." Xelfan12 muttered the flare seal spell at a high speed. Then he made the incantation for the Scirroco blast. "Hey! It's not burning me!" he said. He thrust up his hand in triumph. The thrust sent a white hot fireball up through the many layers of stone ceiling, melting a hole in each layer. It finally exploded in mid air. "Damn hole!" said Xelfan12. He stomped his foot, and the ground surrounding him in a 10 foot radius exploded into blue white flames.  
  
"This is one hell of a spell." said Xelkitti.  
  
"Yeah." said Xelfan12, as the flames disappeared. "We have to tell Verath about this."  
  
Verath sat in his room, in his frozen chair. The room sucked. Everything was frozen. Even the fish tank. Which sucked, because after a long, boring meeting about how Dynast would no longer tell him about the top secret plan, which he then described, Verath thought spending some quality time with fish might be fun. At least they didn't rant about everything. The cold didn't bother him as much now, but it was still a drag. He looked at the clock. Oh yeah, 9:20. It had frozen there. He looked at his watch.  
  
"10:05. I guess I can pay a little visit to my friends." He disappeared from the room, and reappeared on Wolfpup island, where two Mozaku were sleeping over a pile of books.  
  
"Guys. What the hell? You don't need to sleep!" said Verath. Xelkitti 'awoke.'  
  
"Yeah, we just got bored. We found out this new spell." Xelkitti proceeded to explain what had happened with the Scirroco blast spell. Verath laughed when it came to the part where she lit on fire. He got walloped in the head. Xelfan12 'awoke' at this sound.  
  
"Yawn. What was that noise?" he said, in a mock sleepy voice.  
  
"Damnit! Why are you guys pretending to sleep?" Asked Verath, slightly pissed.  
  
"Because.... it's cool." said Xelfan12 and Xelkitti in unison. Verath sweatdropped, but did not comment further.  
  
"Well, we have much to go over. Stop pretending to be sleeping, and let's begin. Thanks to DSD, we know that Dynast plans to unleash Shabranigdo in 3 days."  
  
"Geez. That sucks. Is it enough time?" asked Xelfan12.  
  
"If we don't sleep, it is." said Verath, mockingly, glaring at Xelfan12 and Xelkitti. They both snickered. Why the hell was this so funny? "So, let's go over the plan! Xelkitti, would you be so kind as to explain what will happen if we attack Dynast before he takes on Shabranigdo's powers?" Xelkitti lifted her head up, drowsily. Xelfan12 giggled.  
  
"WHAT THE FUCK?" asked Verath, in an enraged tone.  
  
Xelkitti just began to explain the plan. "We shall attempt a triple dragon slave on Dynast. If that does not work, we unleash a friggin barrage from the bowels of hell." Xelkitti sat down. She recited the plan as if it had been burned into her.  
  
"Not my wording, but close enough." said Verath.  
  
"Now," said Verath. "Xelfan12. What are we going to do if plan one fails?" xelfan12 stood up. He took a great big yawn, and stretched, much to an amused Xelkitti's delight.  
  
"ALRIGHT!! WHAT THE FUCK!??????" screamed Verath. Xelfan12 just looked at him calmly and asked.  
  
"What? Don't you know?" He proceeded to explain. "We are practicing being human. You know, when plan one doesn't work."  
  
"What, so you have no faith whatsoever that plan one might work?" asked Verath.  
  
"I don't think it will." said Xelfan12.  
  
"Me neither." said Xelkitti.  
  
"WHY!?" asked Verath, quite shocked.  
  
"Because. It just never works out that way." said Xelfan12, calmly. Verath fell over. What the hell did he mean?  
  
"Fine! You know what? Forget plan one! Let's just go straight to plan two, which puts each and every being on this planet in extreme peril as we test the limits of chaos and destruction by toying with the nature of our very creator by using a method for harnessing forces beyond our comprehension, which, may I add, has never been tested or proven before! Does that sound like more fun to you!?"  
  
Xelkitti and Xelfan12 both nodded. Of course, Verath had expected this, and had a comeback of his own.  
  
"Plan two it is, then!" he said, triumphantly. Xelkitti and Xelfan12 were both shocked. They had expected him to put up more of a fight.  
  
"But... uhhh.... you see.... Plan one!" said Xelkitti, taken off guard.  
  
"Plan one you say? Alright. If you insist." said Verath. Xelfan12 opened his mouth, but Verath quickly slammed his fist against the table and shouted: "Argument over!"  
  
"Damn." said Xelfan12. He was not used to being fooled like that.  
  
"So, anyways..." said Xelkitti, jumping to the chase. "Who are the two aristocrats whose fancy signatures appear on this document?" she asked, holding up the signed plans for harnessing the power of L-sama.  
  
"You will find out when you need to." said Verath. He wouldn't say anything more about it. This was the second time he'd pissed the two off in that same night.  
  
"Alright then," said Xelfan12. "You know we've gotten nothing accomplished in this meeting then, don't you?"  
  
"Ahh, but I had news to tell, if only I hadn't been distracted by that whole 'sleeping' thing." said Verath. He was really being fucking obnoxious on this particular night.  
  
"And what's the news?" asked Xelkitti, anxiously.  
  
"Well, it seems that plan one may be a little more difficult than we thought." said Verath.  
  
"Uggggggghhhhh!!!! You're leading us around in circles! it's like your train of thought keeps stalling, and then the caboose keeps detaching so we have to go backwards and get it!" exclaimed Xelkitti.  
  
"Yeah, isn't it great?" asked Verath.  
  
"Alright, something's wrong here." said Xelfan12, looking at the now slightly tipsy Verath. "You didn't get into the wine cellar on your way here, did you?"  
  
Verath just fell backwards into a chair, and said "But I do want to go to Minnesota! I really... really... do!" Xelkitti and Xelfan12 slapped both of his cheeks at the same time. They were really cold.  
  
"Hmmmm.... Let's get him to the hot tub." They took Verath to another part of the castle, where they promptly dropped him in a large tub of water. It was hot water. Really hot. Verath looked up.  
  
"Uh oh. I'm all wet." he said, drowsily. He went to stand up, but it looked like a part of him stayed. A part, as in another one of him. The part that got out looked exactly the same as the part that stayed in, except the shiny part of his hair had a blue hue to it.  
  
"My name...." said the slightly woozy figure. "is Saej, and I'm one of those fancy signatures on that paper. And do you have any ice?" he promptly fell on the floor, leaving a stunned Xelfan12 and Xelkitti staring at him. 


	36. Me

It took them about 3 nanoseconds for it all to sink it. Then-  
  
"OH MY FUCKING GOD, VERATH?! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Xelkitti panicked, first to Saej then to the Verath still in the hot tub.  
  
"What the sam hell is going on now?" asked Xelfan12, looking quite confused. He pulled Verath out of the hot tub.  
  
"DAMNIT WHICH ONE OF YOU IS VERATH AND WHAT DID THE OTHER ONE DO TO YOU?!" Xelkitti demanded of the unconscious figures. Saej came to first; he opened his eyes groggily, and was promptly hauled to his feet by Xelkitti. She tried to, anyways, Saej was about a foot taller.  
  
"OUT WITH IT YOU CRAZY SIGNATURE!!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO VERATH?! WAS IT BECAUSE OF DYNAST?! ANSWER ME DAMN YOU!!!"  
  
"Calm down Xelkitti," said Xelfan12, though his worry was clear in his eyes. He firmly removed her hand from the collar of Saej's shirt. Saej leaned against the hot tub when she let go.  
  
"Okay, I let you go, now make stuff make sense," she demanded.  
  
Saej looked at her bemusedly. "I am Saej, as I said before," he said, "I am one of the signature on the-"  
  
"I KNOW that!" snapped Xelkitti, "Moving on, hurry up."  
  
"Xelkitti, you COULD be a bit more polite," suggested Xelfan12. Xelkitti glared at him, and he wisely refrained from criticizing her treatment of strange Mazoku popping out of their friend.  
  
"As I was saying," said Saej, "I am the Ice Mazoku part of Verath."  
  
"That doesn't make any sense!" interrupted Xelkitti. Saej ignored her.  
  
"I come out when Verath is feeling extremely stressed or enraged."  
  
"So you're half of Verath?" asked Xelfan12. "Oh no, I'm only a third. There is the Lightning Ryuuzoku third, Gaaz, and the Human third, Verath."  
  
"So Verath is a reversible chimera or something?"  
  
"No, not exactly, it's more of a compensation being. See, in order for a Ryuuzoku and Mazoku to exist harmoniously in one being there has to be a neutral force, the human force. Gaaz and myself are encased in the human body of Verath. However, when such forces as stress or rage become too great we emerge and become three instead of one," explained Saej.  
  
"But there's only two of you.him, whatever," pointed out Xelkitti.  
  
"If you look in the hot tub you'll notice Gaaz is still in there," said Saej. He was being quite calm about all this, a lot calmer, in fact, then Verath would have been if say Xelfan12 suddenly split into two-three people. Assuming he didn't know about all the compensation being stuff. Apparently Verath's pieces didn't act like him.  
  
Xelkitti peered over the edge of the hot tub and sure enough another Verath was there, this one had yellow-white tint to the highlights in his hair. She reached in to pull him out but was promptly stopped by Saej.  
  
"Don't, Gaaz is a Lightning Ryuuzoku and will have charged the waters. You'll be electrocuted," he said. Xelkitti glared at him, and noticed with a start that Saej's eyes had streaks of light blue amidst the warm brown of Verath's. She snatched her wrist back from his icy grip.  
  
Despite his own warning, Saej lifted Gaaz out of the tub. Xelfan12 raised an eyebrow at him and he merely grinned back.  
  
"I'm immune to him," he explained after enduring both Xelfan12 and Xelkitti's demanding stared for several seconds. About then Verath started to wake up.  
  
"Why am I all wet?" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Then he noticed Gaaz, Seaj, Xelkitti, and Xelfan12. "Oh.shit."  
  
"Verath, you'd better have a pretty damned good explanation for not telling us all this," Xelkitti rounded on him "you know how much easier battles would have been if you told us?! You know how much TECHNIQUE this very useful ability of yours offers?! DID YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT ALL THAT BEFORE YOU DECIDED NOT TO TELL US?! YOU IDIOT?!"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"BAKA!"  
  
"I am so loved," Verath grinned.  
  
"AND MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL, ARE YOU OKAY?!"  
  
"Yes, I'm quite all right," said Verath, looking at her dubiously.  
  
"Good." Verath had his second face-fist conference within a week. "DON'T EVER SCARE US LIKE THAT AGAIN!"  
  
"I was scared?" asked Xelfan12.  
  
"Shut up," Xelkitti snapped. 


	37. Mike

Xelfan12 merely grinned at this. About this time, Gaaz started to really revive from whatever state he was in when he first came out. "My name is Gaaz, and I'm one of the fancy-" "We know!" shouted Xelfan12 and Xelkitti in unison. Verath was sort of relaxing at this point, the initial shock of his secret having already subsided. He leaned back a little, putting his hands behind his head. "Sooooo.." Xelkitti grabbed him by the collar. "Soooooo WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?!" she demanded. "Aren't you going to APOLOGIZE? Aren't you going to come up with some NEW, IMPROVED PLAN?!" Verath eyed his counterparts, who were also eyeing him, and put a hand to his chin. "Hmmmm.." Xelkitti promptly punched him in the face. "Owwwww.." Verath complained. "What was that for? I'm only human now, you realize!" "Oh, right. Whatever." Xelfan12 walked over and put an arm each around Saej and Verath. "Actually, I knew Verath had more than one component all along!" Verath and Xelkitti fell over. "What d'you mean, you knew it all along, you liar?!" yelled Xelkitti. "Hey, maybe there's more of you, too. You seem pretty stressed out to me," Xelfan12 replied casually, trying to squirm out of the headlock. "Don't you think, uh. that we should ask Verath some more stuff? And maybe plan for the battle against Dynast accordingly? Because I thought that-" Xelkitti promptly let go of him. "That's right, Verath! What's your big excuse for not telling us about your other components?" "I prefer to be called a portion," Gaaz put in. "I prefer to be called a compensation," Saej added. "Actually, I like to-" Verath began. "Shut up! You're all as annoying as the original Verath!" Xelkitti complained. "All right, fine," Verath said. "Look, first of all, aren't I entitled to my own secrets?" "No," stated Xelkitti. "C'mon, go easy on him," Xelfan12 defended. "After all, I have my own secrets too." Xelkitti opened her mouth to say something, and then decided against it. "Spit it out, Verath!" "Well, actually it's because I can only do this when I'm stressed out, and you two would no doubt want me to use this 'technique' against Dynast. And also, this isn't exactly safe, you know. That's why it doesn't happen often. See, if one of my thirds are destroyed, then it's gone forever, and I won't have that element anymore. But mainly it's because I'm a lot more vulnerable as only a human. I mean, it just sucks," Verath explained. "Well, you could've at least TOLD us about it!" Xelfan12 said angrily. "Why are you so angry? I thought you were defending him," Xelkitti said. "I dunno. I just didn't think I was producing enough dialogue," Xelfan12 replied. "OK, look," Verath got their attention. "I actually concentrate better after this separation, because then each one of me can think specifically about something. That's how Saej, Gaaz, and I came up with that plan for the Lord of Nightmares. Right after the stress that causes this is an intense feeling of calmness that balances it out, which is when I can think the best. In fact, I'm feeling calm right now." He grinned. Xelfan12 shrugged. "So, is this going to change our plans against Dynast any?" 


	38. Me

"No, not at all," said Xelkitti.  
  
"I wasn't asking you!" said Xelfan12. "Well, for starters, we need to practice, and we don't have enough time to come up with a new plan AND practice it, we really only have two days because we need to attack Dynast before he fuses with Shabrinigdo which would be in three days," she explained.  
  
"He isn't fusing he's channeling power," chorused Seaj, Verath, and Gaaz.  
  
"Right, anyways, we DO need to come up with a tactic to use your.ability to our full advantage," said Xelkitti.  
  
"I actually prefer to call it a trait," said Gaaz.  
  
"I like calling it a curse," muttered Seaj.  
  
"It's more of a convenience," said Verath, "but I suppose there is an argument for calling it an inconvenience."  
  
"Yes I would consider quite incon-"started Seaj, but was shortly cut off by Xelfan12.  
  
"Back to business, please?" he said, pointedly.  
  
"Right," said Verath.  
  
"Verath, your magical powers are still pretty good, aren't they?" asked Xelfan12.  
  
"Yeah, Seaj got the extra power boost for being general, but I do have a great deal of power for a human," said Verath.  
  
"Good, and does-"  
  
"Can we go dry off?" interrupted Gaaz, "I'm really really cold."  
  
A few moments later all five of them were assembled in the den, a cozy yet spacious room filled with comfortable poufs and cushions. Everyone but Seaj was equipped with a fortune cookie. They all held the same fortune. 'An unnamed file has an invalid destination.' Just kidding. Everyone but Seaj was equipped with yummylicious hot chocolate that had big pouffy marshymallows. Seaj had a glass of ice water. Xelfan12 had the stacks of plans set out before them; Xelkitti had gotten some writing instruments and paper, everyone else had changed into a fresh set of clothes. 


	39. David

"Isn't this wonderful? So warm and wonderful?" said Saej in a sarcastic tone. He was not only complaining about the feelings, but also literally the warmness of the room.

"Can't you just shut up for one second?" asked Gaaz, irritatedly, sipping his hot chocolate. "I'm only out like this once in a while!"  
"I'll say whatever I want!" screamed Saej back.  
"Or maybe..." said Verath, rising up from behind them, his eye twitching. "YOU COULD BOTH SHUT UP!"  
He slammed their heads together as he said this. There was a resounding bang, hot chocolate spilled and mixed with ice water, and Saej and Gaaz shut up. Saej stuck his tongue, and a finger, out at Verath. Xelfan12 and Xelkitti were laughing.  
"geez. For three beings who have to share one body, you guys seem like you hate each other." Said Xelfan12. "Well, when we split apart," started Verath.  
"We each take some traits from Verath the Collective," continued Saej.  
"And sometimes those traits dissagree with each other." finished Gaaz.  
"Oh,so is that why Verath contradicts himself so often?" asked Xelkitti, taking a large swig of hot chocolate, as Xelfan12 put his hand over his mouth, laughing.  
"If we were Verath the collective," started Verath.  
"We would definitely," continued Saej.  
"Have kicked your ass for that comment." finished Gaaz. Xelfan12 burst out laughing.  
"I don't see what's so funny." Xelkitti said to him. "I think that the way-"  
She was cut off by Xelfan12, who finished. "they talk is very creepy." He burst out laughing again, but Xelkitti just sweatdropped, and inched away from him. What was in his hot chocolate?  
"Oh yeah!" she said, talking to Verath. "I have something to ask you. I wanted to know how you-"   
Verath cut her off, and finished. "How I managed to be Ryuzaku, mozaku, and human?" Xelkitti gave a disturbed nod. It was bad enough that the three of them finished each others sentences, but this was freaking her out.  
"Uhhhh, do you mind letting people finish their own sentences? This goes for all of you." she looked at Saej and Gaaz, who gave her the thumbs up, although she severely doubted that they would follow that rule.  
"Very," started Verath.  
"Well," continued Saej.  
"Then," finished Gaaz. Xelkitti just looked at them. They all smiled in unison, a big, goofy, 'am I annoying, or what?' smile. The smile quickly turned into bleeding holes after Xelkitti punched all three.  
"Damn! If you keep doing that, I'm gonna have to eat through a tube!" said Verath, counting his teeth, and stroking his jaw, checking for damage.  
"Whoops. Sorry.' said Xelkitti, in a not-sincere-at-all voice.  
"Well, as I nearly just bit off my tongue, I'd better start before it falls off." said Verath, to Xelkitti's alarm. "Just kidding!" he said, as he caught another one of Xelkitti's punch. Apparently, this one was the most like Verath in terms of annoying. "Now, seriously. I'm starting. And this concerns all of you, so listen. Wait, not you Saej and Gaaz. Go do something else. you know this already." Saej and gaaz walked over to the giant jelly bean dispenser, and immediately began trying to forcefeed each other black liquorice jellies, the closest thing to death you will ever taste.  
"Well, what I'm going to tell you is from Verath the Collective's subconcious." Verath said, to an increasingly interested Xelfan12 and Xelkitti. "When we are all fused, that is where we lie, so we have access to this knowledge when we are seperate." Xelkitti and Xelfan12 looked at each other for a second, worked it out silently, and nodded happily. "As you already know, I, the human part, was created out of the sheer will to live in one whole piece. However, the Ryuzaku and Mozaku parts were not just created for any purpose. They were created specifically for this experiment, in which it would be determined whether or not a ryuzaku and mozaku could live conjoined. It was to be a test experiment. A prototype of sorts."  
"You're a prototype? That sucks!" said Xelfan12, in an out of character out burst. Xelkitti slapped her hand against her face, then slapped the back of Xelfan12's head. "Geez. But seriously. Aren't prototypes the ones with all the bugs that they work out in later models?"  
"Yes, well, it usually does suck being a prototype," Verath continued. "But sometimes you get some special features the mass produced models can't have. unfortunately, we, meaning Verath the collective, were dropped as soon as it was seen that we could not hold together very well. Fortunately for us, that wonderful Mozaku, Xellos put us to use."  
"I agree!" said Xelfan12, hardily. "Xellos is awesome!"  
"Yeah, he gave us jobs, too." said Xelkitti. just then, several black jelly beans hit her head. She turned around slowly, and saw Saej and Gaaz, frozen in a fighting position, but wide-eyed in fear of what they'd just done. "You guys just don't get it! Do you like being punched or something?" Xelkitti asked, as she turned their faces into bleeding masks of their former selves. She sat down again, and motioned for Verath to continue.  
"Yes, well," he said. "I also serve as a peacekeeper for these two. They're fine and upstanding Mozaku and Ryuzaku on their own, but together-" Saej and Gaaz flew by, Saej attempting to give Gaaz a wedgie, and Gaaz attempting to give Saej a wet willy. "well, you see what I mean. Anyway, that's about it. unless, of course, you want to hear the important stuff." Xelfan12 sat up attentively, as he nodded his head, in unison with Xelkitti's.  
"Well, ok..." said Verath. "but some of this may disturb you. Well, first of all, I'm guessing you want to know who it was that performed this experiment?" asked Verath. Xelkitti and Xelfan12 nodded eagerly, for about the 100th time in half an hour. "Well, it was actually two people. One of them, you should know very well. The other, you should have at least heard of."

Xelkitti and Xelfan12 got closer to Verath. "They go by the names of Luna Inverse and Beastmaster Zelas." Xelkitti and Xelfan12 moved backwards in shock.  
"No way, we would've known!" said Xelkitti. "Xellos would have-"  
"Uhhh, think about it, Xelkitti." said Xelfan12. "Remember Lord Xellos's trademark line?"  
"Oh yeah," she said.  
"Now, to the part about you two." said Verath, much to Xelkitti's and Xelfan12's surprise.  
"Huh? I thought this was about you!" said Xelfan12.  
"Well, it branches off. And you two probably don't know this, so you might as well listen. As you know, Xellos is a general and a priest. Well, Mozaku don't just get a title. They're designed for it. Apparently, the experiment Zelas performed lead to more questions, such as what would happen if two mozaku were fused? Simple. In a word, Xellos."  
"Really? you mean she used her first try at it as her general priest?" asked Xelfan12.  
"Isn't that kind of reckless?" asked Xelkitti.  
"No, because she didn't. You see, she did have a first try, and it was not Xellos. However, the Mozaku didn't stay together as long as she wanted them to, so she dumped them. However, they retained their powers."  
"And this has to do with... Whoa. Shit. You're lying." said Xelkitti, catching on.  
"No, I'm not. You two were the prototype for a general priest. You are practically the brother and sister of Xellos, and on top of all that, you each have the power of a general and a priest lying dormant inside you."  
Xelkitti and Xelfan12 looked shocked. Was all this true? Or was this Verath really just some crackpot human they'd picked off the streets for a host? He sounded truthful.  
"Well," continued Verath, as if nothing earth-shattering had been discussed. "We should really continue planning, guys. Guys?" Xelfan12 and Xelkitti were too busy staring at a blank wall, trying to work out what had just been discussed to hear anything Verath said.  
"Oh well. I warned them..." he muttered to himself, as he motioned for Gaaz and Saej to sit down.


	40. Mike

Xelkitti was the first to come back to her senses. "But... but why didn't  
we know anything of this... internally? Shouldn't we be able to control  
and focus power?"  
Verath shook his head. "What you don't know, you can't control. And  
Xellos  
apparently didn't want to mention any of this to you two."  
Xelfan12 was still in a half-state of shock. "I... but... wait a second,  
Verath. How would... how would you know about all of this in the first  
place?  
Not only do you know your own past and who created you, and I have no idea  
how you even did that, but you also know me and Xelkitti's pasts? That  
doesn't  
make any sense!"  
"Yeah, and why've you been holding out on us for so long, too?" Xelkitti  
seconded.  
Verath's expression looked very dark. "I can't tell you that just yet."  
"Neither can I," Saej added.  
"I can't tell you either!" Gaaz stated.  
Xelkitti was too tired and overwhelmed this time to punch them; this  
new twist was so bizarre. In fact, it meant that she and Xelfan12 were both  
older than Xellos...  
"So, can we get back to the plans?" Verath asked. "I think you've got  
enough to think about and discuss for now."  
Xelfan12 and Xelkitti looked thoughtful for a second, and then  
reluctantly  
nodded.  
"All right, then," Xelfan12 started, getting back to his normal self.  
"This might mean that Xelkitti and I have some hidden powers, and Verath,  
your other components could aid us if we really needed to. Still, if Dynast  
gets that much power from Shabranigdo, it might not matter at all in the  
end."  
Verath nodded. "I have a feeling that in this battle, individual efforts  
won't work very well. We'll have to try some extremely powerful summoning  
spells if Dynast manages to get the power he so desires."  
"So then our weapons won't do anything?" Xelkitti frowned, remembering  
how much she liked her death scissors.  
"No, we're going to have to go with heavy offensive spells," Verath  
explained.  
"If we cast triple spells together, we might have a chance to win."  
Xelfan12 looked over at Gaaz and Saej, who were mostly quiet this whole  
time. "What about them? Are you going to become whole again soon or  
something?  
And why are they so quiet?"  
Verath shrugged. "It's not always set when we become whole again. They're  
quiet because there's not much need for them to talk. They're part of me,  
after all. They're just listening to the plans so they know what to do when  
we become one body again."  
"How do we unlock our general and priest powers?" Xelkitti asked, still  
dwelling a little on the earlier conversation.  
"I suppose that's something you'll have to figure out on your own,"  
Verath  
replied.  
"Hmmm... this sure doesn't seem like a very good plan," Xelfan12 put  
in. "We don't have any definite idea what to do, do we? And are there any  
more of those weird lost spells like the one you and your other components  
signed?"  
"Yes, those could come into use," muttered Verath thoughtfully.  
"Especially  
if we all cast them together."

Hi, note to Mike: Xelkitti said that she wanted to do most of the plans, so  
I was just contemplating some stuff here. Also I don't really know exactly  
where you're going with the plot, so I didn't want to screw something up.  
Note to Xelkitti: You already know this. How uninteresting.


	41. Me

.  
Note to Xelfan12: It doesn't matter what any of the other co-authors plan  
unless they tell you. Just write whatever! But I did want to do with  
plans, yes.

Note to Mike: HUGGLES!

Another Note to Mike: If you were wondering, that was just so I could write  
a note to you so you wouldn't feel left out and have a Note to Gerby next  
time you write. .

"Okay, what are they?" asked Xelkitti, a pen already poised over a clean  
sheet of paper.  
"Xelkitti, they're called lost for a reason, you know," said Verath, "I need  
to go FIND them from Dynast's tinder-filled ice-incased hunk of metal he  
calls a file cabinet, then I need to READ them to see if they are at all  
useful, and what little spells survive that screening have to be STOLEN."  
"Oh," said Xelkitti, looking slightly put out.  
"Saej will go do that while we're planning," he added.  
"I will?" asked Saej.  
"Yep, no ifs ands or buts. Shoo," ordered Verath.  
"Why can't HE go?" Saej pointed at Gaaz, who was acting out a play using  
pieces of licorice. It was a very violent play.  
"Because he's a Ryuuzoku, now scoot."  
"But-"  
"MUSH!" Xelkitti yelled at him, quite keen to get the forgotten spells.  
Saej started to argue with her, took one glance, and decided against it. He  
left in a rush of cold air.  
"Anyways," said Xelfan12, going on as if nothing unusual had happened (which  
hadn't, in his point of view anyway). "I think we should get a move on the  
plans, then?" Seeing no objections he continued. "Well, I was thinking we  
should keep some of our old techniques, such as my quite useful Dark Mist  
trick which I so kindly demonstrated on Verath a few chapters back. We just  
need to alter some of them a bit, like our Barrage of 'Bits would need to be  
changed to Blast Bombs instead of Flare and Ice Bits. Xelkitti, are you  
writing this down?"  
"Hai!" Xelkitti was busy scribbling the alterations over their old plans.  
"Yes, I quite agree with that, and I have a good plan to use the Scircco  
ball," Verath said, "Dynast already knows you two are fire elemental but he  
doesn't know about the Scircco, you two could cast it and it would just seem  
as if you were using fire. But of course, the damage dealt would be much  
much more considerable, you might call it a surprise attack."  
More scribbling.  
"We have advantage in numbers too, don't forget to put that down," said Xelfan12.

"We all know chaos spells, or at least shamanism spells are the most effective," Verath said, "If the worst comes to the worst I can split and have us three use chaos spells while Saej and Gaaz combine black and white magic spells. And remember not to panic if one of us falls."

"Bu-" Xelkitti started.

"Xelkitti can use her illusion magic to confuse Dynast when we need time," Xelfan12 went on, much too enthusiastic to pay attention to her. "or just use it to confuse him all the time. It's much better to have him waste energy blasting away fake enemies while we prepare. Wearing him out would be good"

"Hey-" Xelkitti tried again.

"Yeah," agreed Verath, "Dynast's not good against fire spells either, strong enough ones that is. We'll have to use plenty of blast bombs. He doesn't know Dolphin's against him; he'll probably bring her along so she doesn't destroy his house. We can have her fight him too. I think I can manage to talk her into it. But I'll have to convince her not to use water magic, she'd just freeze herself."

"Ver-"

"I think a semi-defensive strategy would work best," Xelfan12 cut off Xelkitti again. "We'll try to inhibit Dynast's ability to fight as much as possible and attack when his defenses are down. Xelkitti could do most of the inhibiting, as I mentioned before, while the rest of us attack. What do you think?"

"I-"

"Wonderful!" Verath interrupted, "And I might add I think the scircco trick should be reserved for Xelkitti, in case Dynast figures out a way to become uninhibited. When that happens we might have to resort to using landscape for defense. I've discovered that using durable pieces of landscape can be quite useful for blocking attacks and momentary distractions when one needs to get away. Boulders are my favorite and Wolfpup has an abundance of those along the shores. But in case we can't get him here we can at least lure him into some type of quarry or something."

"Verath" Xelkitti started again, only to be cut off, AGAIN.

"Yeah, that would also help our offensive in a sense that-"

"WILL YOU BOTH JUST SHUT UP!" Xelkitti finally burst out.


	42. David

"All you had to do was ask!" said Verath, rolling his eyes. Xelkitti growled and slammed his head relatively lightly into Xelfan12's, this time remembering that he was only human. "that was it? You usually-" But Xelfan12's description of the punishment was cut off by a fist in his face. "Oh. I was about to say. it usually hurts more." Xelfan12 said, as the big bloody lump on his forehead began to receed back into his face. "now, as I was trying to tell you, Saej is back." Xelkitti pointed to the corner, where a panting Saej was just about to keel over. Gaaz's comments about him being out of shape were not helping. "Saej! Back so soon? What have you got for us?" asked Verath. "Oh, I've got something for you, alright!" said Saej. he walked over to Verath and took a badly aimed swing at his head, which was easily dodged. He then froze one of the cushy pillows, before collapsing onto it, and breathing a sigh of relief. "What was that for?" asked Xelfan12. "It for sending me on a freaking suicide mission!" snapped Saej. "This freak here," he motioned towards Verath. "did not only tell me where the damned filing cabinet is, but he also forgot the fact that I am 100 ice mozaku, making me extremely susceptible to Dynast's control!" "Well, it's partially your fault. You could've asked, you know, and- WAAAAAAAAIIIIII!" screamed Verath, as Saej began strangling him. Xelkitti ended this by hitting Saej on the back of his neck. "well, all grudges aside, can we see what we have?" asked Xelfan12, eager to see some more spells. "here! take them!" said Saej, angrily, throwing a stack of frozen papers onto the floor in front of them. The edges cracked off of the frozen sheets. "Careful!" said Verath, who just got an icy glare in response from Saej. Saej then walked into the corner, muttering how DSD almost caused death by "huggling." "For an ice mozaku, you'd expect him to be... well... cooler and calmer, I guess." said Xelfan12 to Xelkitti. "yeah, well, Verath is a screwed up person.." said Xelkitti, regardless of a furious Verath sitting next to her. "Now! The moment we've all been waiting for!" she said, as she spread out her hand. The stack of papers began thawing out. "Ahhh... I see we didn't go through them first, as planned?' said Verath, to Saej. Saej just spat in his direction, hitting another cushion, and freezing it. "Charming...' said Xelfan12 picking up the first sheet. "what's this? Hmmmm..." he began reading it, his eyes widening with excitement and glee as they traveled down the page. "Cool. It seems by utilizing the bolt fury spell, we can create projectiles of medium power with a wave of our hands. the projectiles are linked with our elemental power..." Xelfan12 stopped reading, muttered something under his breath, then cried out "Bolt Fury!" He waved his hand, and balls of black flame shot out where his hand had been pointed in the sweep. Verath and Xelkitti barely had time to block the flames, as they hurtled toward them. They bounced off of their shields, and lit a few more of the cushions on fire. "awwwwwwww... those are expensive!" said Xelkitti, looking at the frozen and charred remains of the puff filled pillows. "At least mine's fire retardent!" she said, as she held up her pillow, and rubbed it agianst her face affectionately. Saej spit, hit the pillow, and it was instantly frozen. Gaaz laughed and gave him a high five. Xelkitti walked over, and broke the pillow over both of their heads. Meanwhile, Xelfan12 was trying to keep extremely still. "This spell is great. It allows you to summon forth unlimited projectiles that are somewhat stronger than even flare arrows, but there's one problem..." He looked at Verath for help. "How do I turn it off?" Verath, thinking frantically, suggested the first thing that popped into his head. "uhhhh... wash your hands!" he said, much to the fiendish delight of Gaaz. Xelfan12, not having a better idea, turned around, walked carefully to the nearest sink (conveniently placed behind him) and began washing his hands. "it's not working!" he said, annoyed, as he scrubbed harder, and singed the inside of the sink. "use soap!" said Xelkitti. Xelfan12 applied soap, and sure enough, his hands no longer emmited black flames. "Son of a bitch..." he said. "i'll be sure to pack a bar of soap in our battle with Dynast." said Gaaz. "Alright. Next spell! Verath, I think you should try this one." "yes!" said Verath, excitedly. "it's called planet divider, and it's a sword technique/enchantment." said Xelkitti, reading off of the paper. "Yeah! You hear that?" Verath said, as he nudged Xelfan12. Xelfan12 rolled his eyes, as two seconds later, Verath realized something. "i don't carry a sword." he said, not intending to be funny. Saej and Gaaz cracked up, anyway. 'here. Use this.' Xelkitti said, as she reached behind her, and pulled out a small, double edged blade. "I don't like this one, so you can feel free to break it." Verath made a motion with his hands, representing his happiness. "uhh... we should do this one outside, I think. It's got a range about the size of wolfpup island." Xelkitti said, calmly. however, she was met with disbelieving stares from everyone else in the room. 'What?" asked Verath, half excited, and half shocked. "Just come on. We have to go out over the ocean." said Xelkitti. Everyone nodded in agreement, and they all teleported out over the ocean. "Now. Here's the incantation. And all you have to do is strike the nearest surface with your sword." Said Xelkitti. "yeah yeah. I can read." said Verath, eagerly snatching the paper away. He recited the incantation, and spun his sword around. "stop showing off." said Xelfan12. "I'm not!" said Verath, slightly surprised. the sword was now spinning faster and faster, and was beginning to glow a yellow color. 'Hit the water!" said Xelkitti, shoving verath downward. "Oh yeah!" said verath, as he began dropping. he sped toward the water, and when he within an inch of the water, he stopped, and swung the sword down with all the force he could muster. The sword reacted as if it had struck a concrete surface, and shattered. "Woah!' said verath, but before he could say anything else, the place where he had struck turned into a massive indentation, that travelled far below the surface, and caused part of the sea bed to crack. "Shit. that's not good." said Verath, as he flew up to where the rest of them were standing. As he flew upwards, a giant wave also erected itself. it was the biggest wave any of them had ever seen, and it was most definitely going to reach Wolpup island. "ummmm... Fireball?" asked Xelkitti, and everyone was unanymous in aggreement. "Fireball!" they all shouted in unison, and 5 hyper boosted fireballs shot toward the section of the wave that was headed toward wolpup island. It managed to evaporate a small section of the wave, but nothing more. "Shit. Our home is going to get all wet." said Xelfan12. "Xelkitti! Another sword!" said verath. Xelkitti pulled out another generic, no-name sword, and handed it to Verath. Verath recited the incantation to Planet Divider, and flew over to the front of the massive wave. He swung the sword forward, and struck the wave right in the center. The blade shattered again, and the giant wave blew backwards into millions of droplets of water. Xelkitti and Xelfan12 found themselves suddenly wet, with a laughing Saej and Gaaz above them. "Right. So I should bring soap, and plenty of extra swords to our battle with Dynast." said Gaaz.  
note: David. Make up some spell for Xelkitti to use! She hasn't tried one out in this section, yet. And remember, it's gotta have some sort of flaw. It's forgotten for a reason.


	43. Mike

"O... kay..." Xelfan12 muttered, as he, Xelkitti, and Verath, soaking wet,  
went back into the building. Gaaz and Saej, totally dry, continued snickering  
as they followed along.  
"Shut the hell up!" Xelkitti shouted, turning around to yell at Verath's  
counterparts. However, this only made them laugh even harder. They certainly  
were having a good time...  
"Yeah, Verath. What's wrong with your parts, anyway?" Xelfan12 asked, starting  
to get pissed off. "I thought they were supposed to be you. Now they're  
just laughing at us instead of helping at all. Can't you do something about  
that?"  
Verath turned to Xelfan12 with an exasperated look on his face. "Hey, I  
can't help how I am. I have lots of internal conflicts."  
Saej's face burst into a broad smile, and suddenly fired a blast of ice  
at Verath, turning Verath's hair completely to ice. "AAGGHH! WHAT THE FUCK!"  
Verath cursed, running around in circles, and causing Xelfan12 and Xelkitti  
to burst out laughing again. "IT'S NOT FUNNY! I'M REALLY, REALLY COLD! SOMEONE  
DO SOMETHING!"  
Saej winked at Gaaz, who grinned widely as well. Gaaz spat at Verath's hair,  
and, since all three portions were excellent shots, expertly hit his target.  
The streak of lightning saliva caused Verath's hair to burst into flames  
instead and begin smoking. Verath let out a fresh yell, and now attempted  
to be doing some kind of interpretive foreign dance in his attempts to return  
his hair back to normal. By now, Xelfan12 was rolling on the floor with  
laughter, and Xelkitti wasn't helping much either by giving Gaaz and Saej  
high fives for once.  
Verath, meanwhile, now ran to the sink as fast as he could, turned on the  
water, and stuck his head in. There was a delightful ssssssszzzzz sound,  
and steam filled the room, causing fresh bursts of laughter. For a moment,  
Verath was completely silent as his hair healed back to normal. But only  
for a moment. "ALL RIGHT!" he demanded angrily of Gaaz and Saej, who were  
still laughing along with Xelkitti and Xelfan12. "What the HELL was that  
for!"  
Xelfan12 managed to get to his feet, wiping his eyes. "Whew," he gasped.  
"You sure DO have internal conflicts, especially now that we can see them  
from the outside." He started snickering again.  
Verath shot him a cold look. "And what's up with you! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO  
BE MY ALLIES, DAMMIT!"  
Xelkitti, coughing a little, got control of herself again. "Sorry, but it  
was pretty funny." She ignored another one of Verath's looks. "Why are 'you'  
so destructive, anyway? I mean, I understand Saej, seeing that he's a mozaku,  
and he probably enjoys this stuff, but how come Gaaz enjoys it so much,  
too?"  
Verath sighed. "I dunno. I guess the chaos that resulted from being one  
person kind of rubbed off on all my parts. I suppose that cooperation is  
out of the question for 'me' at this point. But in that case..."  
He dashed over to the grinning forms of Gaaz and Saej, and then cracked  
their heads together again. "COOPERATE!" he ordered. Gaaz and Saej let out  
some sounds of surprise when their heads were banged together, but then  
quickly gained control, looking happy as they retreated to another corner  
of the room.  
"All right," gasped Xelfan12, trying not to laugh. "At this rate, we're  
never going to get to the plans, so uh... everyone just settle down."  
After a few minutes, Gaaz and Saej had finally stopped being amused enough  
to manage to sit in relative silence, and Xelfan12, Xelkitti, and Verath  
resumed their study of the lost spells.  
"Right," Xelkitti said, getting their attention. "So now it's my turn at  
one of these spells. And the one I choose had better be good." She picked  
one out of the small pile, looking at the title. "'Inferno Labyrinth',"  
she muttered. "Well... considering what happened with the spells you two  
cast, I'm not really trusting this one, especially considering the rather  
ominous name that almost certainly means something will go drastically,  
horribly wrong. So, in case it does, I want you two to find the counter-method  
right away... All right?"  
Xelfan12 and Verath cast glances at each other, trying to hide their half-smiles.  
"I SAID, ALL RIGHT!" Xelkitti demanded, annoyed at the lack of support.  
"Why, of COURSE we'll help!" Xelfan12 said sarcastically. This earned him  
a punch in the face, this one harder than usual. "Ow..." he groaned,  
rubbing his face. "You didn't have to hit THAT hard... besides, this is  
all Saej's fault if something goes wrong."  
Saej narrowed his eyes from where he was sitting. "What do you mean it's  
my fault! I manage to come back from a freakin' suicide mission alive  
with these spells, and now you're saying it's my fault if something goes  
wrong!"  
"Yes," Verath stated pointedly.  
Gaaz started laughing at this, earning a frozen smile as Saej used his ice  
powers on his counterpart.  
"Damn, you really do have internal conflicts," Xelfan12 commented. "I think  
you really need to see a psychologist or something, the way this stuff goes  
on."  
"Yeah, well, it's not like you don't have personality problems of your own."  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
"Look, you're getting all worked up over nothing. You're being an idiot."  
"Yeah, well at least I don't have a stupid name like 'Verath'!"  
"SHUT UP!"  
"Hey, I was just- WHAT THE HELL!" Xelfan12 cut himself off, staring at  
Xelkitti. Verath followed Xelfan12's gaze, and then his eyes widened as  
well.  
Xelkitti had cast Inferno Labyrinth while they were talking, and there appeared  
to be an extension of blood-red energy extending from her forehead. It then  
expanded into a series of complex patterns, twisting and turning as if in  
an unsolvable maze. It had formed a cage of sorts that whoever inside couldn't  
hope to get out of... and Gaaz and Saej were suddenly trapped inside that  
cage.  
"HOLY SHIT! NOOOOOO..." shouted Verath. "IF THEY DIE, THEN ALL MY STRENGTH  
WILL BE GONE! 'I' WILL BE GONE!"  
"Xelkitti, snap out of it!" Xelfan12 yelled, running over to Xelkitti. Saej  
and Gaaz had already been knocked unconscious, trapped inside the extension  
of energy from Xelkitti. She turned to Xelfan12, and to his and Verath's  
surprise, her eyes looked like mazes too, fire twirling inside them.  
"I can control it... I can control the labyrinth with my mind..." she whispered,  
apparently overcome by some strange desire.  
Verath let out another sound of despair as the "cage" started to get hotter  
and hotter. He ran over to Xelkitti, shaking her, but she didn't budge.  
He tried throwing something in the path of the energy and the cage, but  
it merely incinerated instantly. "XELKITTI! STOP IT!" He turned to Xelfan12  
with a worried look on his face. "Damn, the darkness inside her must have  
took over. This spell probably feeds on evil within you, and considering  
that mozaku aspect..."  
Xelfan12 gulped. "No wonder this spell was sealed... B- But why weren't  
the other spells as dangerous?"  
Verath narrowed his eyes. "I have a feeling that they're all more powerful  
than we thought them to be. Just that this one was unlocked faster than  
the others... But that's not important right now! We have to stop this spell  
before my counterparts are roasted to a crisp by Xelkitti!"


	44. Me

Verath snatched the Inferno Labyrinth spell from the floor and scanned it quickly.  
"Yeah, it feeds off darkness, and when there is no darkness, life energy," he reported, "Damn, it also posesses the caster and makes her use it on nearby threats, unless the caster is well skilled in controlling it, which is highly unlikely since the labyrinth is infinitely complex. So, we'll have to get rid of the source of power, or at least cut it off somehow..." he concluded, casting a worried glance at his two counterparts and then at Xelkitti, who was looking paler than a few momnet ago.  
"Hell lot of good that does," muttered Xelfan12, who was obviously deep in thought, thinking up one of his brilliant ideas.  
"GODS DAMNIT GET US OUT OF HERE!" Gaaz yelled. "I'M FUCKING MELTING!" complained Saej, and indeed he had begun to perspire rather profusely under the intensifying heat.  
"Oh, I got an idea!" Xelfan12 exclaimed. He strode over to Xelkitti and deftly poked her in the side, hard.  
She squeak-mewed and jumped about a foot in the air. The spell was broken almost immediately. Saej and Gaaz collapsed onto the blissfully cool stone floor. Xelkitti joined them moments later.  
"Damn I hurt like a bitch," complained Gaaz, "That thing wasn't heat, it literally sets your nerves on fire...fuck..."  
"Where'd my fucking water go," Saej grumbled, "little fucktard casting the god damned spell while no one was looking. She probably planned the whole damned thing."  
"Shut the fuck up, she ended up worse off than both of you," Xelfan12 snapped from his post beside Xelkitti's unconscious body. She seemed okay, just worn out. Not terribly so, though, she could at least keep her human form.  
"Remind me not the put that in our battle plans," Verath said, "We can't afford a spell that needs so much effort."  
Xelkitti came to about then, rather cheerfully too, for the ordeal that had just happened.  
"So, how'd it go?" she asked, struggling to sit, but a wave a dizziness hit her and she lay back down.  
"Quite well, actually, but I'm afraid we'll have to omit the spell from the plans because of the effort it requires," said Verath.  
"Quite well my ass," snarled Saej, and would have said more if not for Verath's Look of Doom.  
"It's more than just a cage, you know," said Xelkitti, "It lets you hack into the minds of your victims, much to their discomfort," she added, gleefully, "But yes, it does require immense amounts of energy and concentration because minds are very complex, almost like a labyrinth. And I was hacking into two simultaneously. It might be useful if only used on individuals."  
"So you were causing pain on PURPOSE!" asked Gaaz.  
"Uh...not really, it's more of a side effect," grinned Xelkitti.  
"You mom-assing-" Before he could continue, however, he was punched across the room and crashed into a bookshelf, causing the books to fall and bombard him with their evil sharp corners.  
"Anyways," said Xelkitti, "Gaaz or Saej is casting the next spell."  
While Saej perused his limited selection of spells (Blood Rain, Flame Jet, Soul Shredder, and Circeum Bolt), DSD suddenly appeared next to Verath, a very panicked look on her face. Ignoring the chaos this caused she delivered her message right away.  
"Evil Bug Popsicle is giving Baka Hentai Man power early! Hurry!"


	45. David

"What? NO! It can't be!" Said Verath, alarmed, and jumping to his feet. He grabbed DSD, while the others gathered around frantically. "How do you know? How early?" He asked, in a frenzy, while shaking DSD violently. She was on the verge of tears by now, but she managed to hold them back, and told them the information.  
"He said... He said to me that he would do it now!" she managed to spit out, before she collapsed, quite shocked by Verath's shaking. Verath let go suddenly, and DSD hit the floor with a thud.  
"This is really really bad..." he said, his hands still in a position as if he was still holding DSD. "Well, let's go then, damnit!" said Xelkitti, already running to the door.  
"No. There's no need." said Xelfan12, looking calm, collected, and cool.  
"Huh? Stop joking, you idiot!" said Verath, angrily.  
"Hey! Shut up and listen!" snapped Xelfan12. "I planned for this. I've set up a summoning circle around the perimeter of the entire island. If we do this fast enough, we can probably get Dynast here before he finishes the final preparations on his plan to channel the power of Shabranigdo."  
"Hmmm... that could work..." said Saej, looking at Xelfan12.  
"No. It won't." said DSD. Everyone turned around and looked at her. Before someone could say she was wrong, she began speaking again. "We may have enough man power to summon a Mozaku of his level to this Island, but if Dynast has already started the channeling, it's too late. He's already established some sort of link with Shabranigdo, and we haven't the power or space to house the transport. The attempt could result in the destruction of Wolfpup Island and everything on it. We have no chance of summoning him here now." Everyone stared at DSD. Her once soft, blue eyes were now a hardened shade.  
"I guess... Uhhh... how?" asked Verath, which was basically saying what everyone was thinking.  
DSD just stood expressionless, and said "When it is needed, my mind seems to remember when it still had coherence..." She said this with a touch of sadness. But she didn't have time to lament on her now gone sanity, before none other than Beastmaster Zelas appeared in the room. There was now a touch of anger in DSD's eyes, although it quickly passed.  
"Zelas!" said Xelkitti, as she and her fellow Mozaku bowed. Verath and Gaaz just stood there, and Xelkitti and Xelfan12 suddenly remembered what they were. "You..." said Xelkitti, as she slowly stood up. "How could you just throw me and Xelfan12 away?" she said angrily.  
"Listen. As you probably know, now is not the time for us to be fighting. We can deal with each other later. Now is the time to attack Dynast. And while you're at it, you should go free Shabranigdo, too." She said it so nonchalantly that it almost shocked everyone.  
'What?" asked Xelfan12, surprised to hear this.  
"It shouldn't be so surprising to you." said Zelas, coldly. "It is after all, the Mozaku's duty to resurrect Shabranigdo. And you, I believe, are a Mozaku." Xelfan12 stared menacingly at Zelas for a moment.  
"Fine" he said. "But what you're asking is impossible."  
"What? How dare you talk to me that way!" said Zelas.  
"Hey. Leave him alone!" said Verath. "With Dynast channeling his power, whatever we do to him will affect Shabranigdo! If we destroy Dynast, then Shabranigdo's gone, too."  
Zelas glared at him, and slapped him across the face. "You of all people have the least authority to speak to me. And don't you think I considered that? Have you fools forgotten why Shabranigdo is allowing Dynast to gain access to his powers? It's because Dynast promises to free him! If we release Shabranigdo, he will no doubt destroy Dynast for using him that way." Everyone stopped and thought about this. Yes, that had been the reason, but for some reason, everyone doubted that it would be that simple.  
"So stop standing around! Get your asses moving!" shouted Zelas, as she snapped her fingers, and the party of five were gone. DSD quickly followed, and all of them reappeared at Dynasts frozen palace. Xelkitti gave a shiver, not from being cold, but because of the presence she felt. There was indeed a great power surging through the castle. They walked on, Saej, Verath, and Gaaz leading the way. Everyone could feel it now. DSD still had a determined look on her face. For once, she looked scary.  
"So... how are we going to do this?" asked Verath, not to anyone in particular. DSD was the first to answer.  
"We don't stand a chance if he's already begun to channel power. Even if we are only going to free Shabranigdo, he will no doubt try to protect it. We will need to call upon the Mother of all things as soon as possible, aiming for whatever protection Dynast offers for Shabranigdo." After she spoke, there was a long silence as the walked on. As they approached the doors to the main hall, they heard moaning on the other side. It was the moaning of many people, but it sounded eerily melodic. They were all different pitches and voices, but they were all in perfect unison, almost humming a horrible melody. The doors creaked open slowly, the ice around it breaking. As the group of six walked in, the moaning stopped, leaving an unnatural silence in the air. It was dark. There was nothing to see, but the smell was disgusting. It was a smell of rot, of mold, but also of birth. It was like whatever was dying in the room was giving birth to new life, as well. The ground was disgusting. Its texture was organic, and it made a squishing noise as they stepped on it. Suddenly, two ruby eyes flashed in the dark.  
"Ahhhh... I knew you'd be back. My trap was set, and you fell right into it." The voice was quite obviously Dynast's, but it was conjoined with may others.  
"What are you talking about?" asked Xelkitti.  
"Ahhh... but you couldn't understand. I have not channeled strength after all. That is the trap." Said Dynast, cryptically.  
"Yeah right! Trap? You'll just be easier to beat!" said Saej, drawing a sword, although no one could see it.  
"Oh. But that's where you are wrong. You see, why just take power, when you can take everything?" he said, reaching a conclusion.  
"What? No...you didn't!" said DSD, as everyone looked forward towards the Ruby eyes, as if it would clear things up.  
"But I did. I absorbed Shabranigdo!" said Dynast, as his voice increased in volume.  
"But you can't do that! You couldn't hold it!' said Verath, alarmed.  
"I couldn't... But we could!" said Dynast, as the room illuminated. Everyone looked around in horror. Where there should have been walls, and floors, there weren't. Instead, there were the pale, disfigured bodies of preps and salesmen. They looked at the source of the red eyes. It was a pillar of bodies, and on the top, clearly defined, was Dynast's. "With the increased astral body this gives me, I absorbed Shabranigdo! Hahaha!" as he laughed, his jaw began to rot away, but grew back just as soon. It was quite evident that even in this state, he could not hold the power.  
"You sick bastard! Who would fuse preps to their body? We'll kill you!" shouted Xelkitti, brandishing her death scissors.  
"No... You will die before even facing me!" said Dynast, as the preps beneath them gave way, and they tumbled into a dark, dank room beneath the floor. In the room were thousands of white, glowing eyes. 'have fun with my new creations..." said Dynast.

Note: The things are spoiler. It's another mindless slaughter. Sorry this part wasn't that well written. It downright sucked. I can't concentrate with my idiot brother playing Mario 64 at full fucking volume. All day. God that sucked! I hate that game! It's so retarded. Oh well. Expect better from my next entry.


	46. Mike

"Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting," muttered Verath, shaking his head in  
disbelief at what Dynast had done.  
"Yeah, really," Xelfan12 agreed, as they looked through the darkness, which  
they'd already adjusted to, at the thousands of vile prep/salespeople that  
looked back at them in anticipation. "What kind of sick bastard would resort  
to something like this, even to get unlimited power?"  
Xelkitti still held her death scissors tightly in her hand. The endless  
blades glistened threateningly, each sharp as an axe worthy of a god. "Still,  
this does provide an excellent opportunity for mindless slaughter. I mean,  
that WAS the original point of this entire story."  
Xelfan12 suddenly grinned widely at Verath. "Hey, Verath, speaking of the  
beginning of the story, whatever happened to changing your name to something  
'later' so that it didn't sound like crap?"  
Verath narrowed his eyes. "Hey, shut up! I've actually grown to like this  
name! It's a cool name, right, counterparts?"  
Gaaz and Saej glanced at each other, and then burst out laughing. Verath  
was starting to get seriously pissed off.  
"Look," Xelkitti said, gesturing to the appoaching thousands in the huge  
room that seemed to stretch all around endlessly. "It looks like the slaughter,  
I mean, fight, is about to begin, so you'd better get out your weapons."  
Verath nodded, and he pulled out his Death Pistols, spinning them around  
coolly, and setting the powder to "Magic". He aimed the weapon at one point  
among the endless preps/salespeople, and pulled the Death trigger. Instantly,  
dozens of the things exploded in bloody messes, confusing the others as  
they struggled to adapt to the situation. Verath smiled widely. "This is  
going to be a GREAT combination..."  
Meanwhile, Gaaz and Saej appeared to have their own counterpart versions  
of the original weapons. Gaaz's pistols shot lightning, and could either  
be set to shoot as a strong type of electrocuting lightning physical bullet,  
or lightning as an elemental. Saej's pistols could either fire bullets made  
of ice, or also shoot the elemental to freeze his opponents. Both sets of  
pistols had Death triggers as well...  
Xelfan12 drew his organic sheep's stomach filled with marbles, which is  
quite hard to do. Again, he cursed his luck that he was not co-authoring  
when his weapon was written about. He willed the thing to become a spear,  
and he instantly had a perfectly long, pointy spear, jagged with extra knives  
sticking out. He smiled in satisfaction.  
"We might not have actually battled these things before," Gaaz spoke for  
him and Saej, "but we felt the joy from when Verath killed them."  
"It's time to have some fun," Saej agreed.  
The enemies began to rush toward them in endless swarms, wielding checkbooks  
and schedules and contracts. Far above them, almost in another reality,  
Dynast's cold laughter cold be heard in the distance.  
"So, uh," one salesperson asked, when they got within hearing range. "Are  
we supposed to fight or something? Or would you like to buy a washing machine  
with an expired warranty?"  
"I'm a prep and I'm proud," spoke up someone else.  
Xelfan12, Xelkitti, Verath, Saej, and Gaaz exchanged glances, and then the  
battle began.  
Xelfan12 raced along the outer perimeter of the enemies for a bit, savoring  
how slow they responded and how surprised they were when they even saw him.  
"This is SO much better than the last prep battle," he chuckled to himself.  
"Especially since there's so many more preps and no rules at all. And the  
salespeople as well... Dynast is going to pay dearly."  
He jumped up in the air, flipping himself twice before starting to fall  
head-first toward the endless groups of Dynast's minions. They looked up,  
surprised, and Xelfan12 pierced his spear right through one of their heads,  
and then launched off the support, ripping his weapon back out, and whipping  
it all around to kill many more as he landed neatly on his feet once more.  
He willed the sheep's stomach to become an axe, and it responded to his  
requests. He swung around in a 360 arc, beheading anyone standing too close.  
One of the stupider preps tried feebly to come at him with his fists. Xelfan12  
turned his weapon into a yo-yo surrounded by knives just for this special  
treatment, and as the other preps watched in horror, whipped his hand out  
to send the yo-yo flying straight into the opposing prep's chest. The prep  
gasped in alarm as Xelfan12 pulled back on the weapon, causing the yo-yo's  
knives to spin and cut the prep's insides until the yo-yo was close enough  
that he made it stop. He smiled at the prep, and reveled in how much his  
opponent squirmed. The yo-yo continued to spin relentlessly. "But... why?"  
the prep asked in desperation. "Why hurt me? Why kill me? I'm so... so...  
preppie..." Xelfan12 grinned widely. "That's why you die." He pushed the  
prep back out, and then did many more yo-yo tricks, whipping the prep around  
until he was cut to shreds, and then willed the weapon to become a mace,  
rushing through the crowd to kill many more. He was really enjoying himself.  
Xelkitti was having tons of fun with her death scissors. About 50 preps  
had formed a huge circle around her, and once in a while a couple would  
rush at her in a frantic attempt to do some damage with whatever weapons  
they happened to have. Xelkitti either just thrust her weapon straight out  
to gorge the enemy delightfully in response, or, if she was feeling particularly  
sadistic, even use the things as normal scissors, causing thousands of different  
deaths, and, consequently, making the death thousands of times more painful.  
She folded the scissors into its boomerang pattern, throwing it outward  
into the circle of preps, and then controlling her weapon so that it cut  
off at least one limb of every prep standing around her. The weapon came  
back into her hands, not a trace of blood on it. Xelkitti smiled with content  
as the preps began to groan in pain. "I'll put you out of your misery,"  
she stated, and ran forward to the closest prep, using the cutting motion  
on his body in general, and causing him to die painfully. She whipped out  
a couple of the poisonous darts on her scissors, throwing them to the other  
side of the circle, each one striking a target that collapsed in convulsions  
and then died. The darts shot back into her weapon, and she went back to  
her assault. She removed one of the enchanted knives from her scissors,  
stabbing the preps as she went along and cursing them for eternity. She  
threw poison knives at random into the crowd. Xelkitti had broken free of  
the circle and was now mindlessly killing with pleasure. The knives shot  
back into her scissors perfectly, and she brandished her weapon with the  
highest possible expertise. "Salespeople, you're next," she whispered with  
joy.  
Verath, Gaaz, and Saej were having the time of their lives in their own  
part of the battle. Even though each was weaker than the original combined  
version of themselves, their attacks were incredibly wide-ranged, and besides,  
the preps and salespeople were too weak for it to matter much about power,  
anyway. "These are Dynast's 'new creations'?" laughed Verath. "I could kill  
all of these preps in my sleep!" "Same goes for the people who try to sell  
you stuff," Gaaz agreed, as he shot one enemy to death painfully with lots  
of electric bullets using the normal trigger. "They're called 'salespeople',  
dumbass," Saej corrected politely. "Whoa," Verath grinned, looking at a  
distinct crowd coming toward them. "This should be fun." About 300-500 preps/salespeople  
were dashing towards them, perhaps after they'd made some kind of pact.  
"Say," Gaaz asked, as the enemies drew closer, "Are these people each a  
prep AND a salesperson, or are some of the preps, and some of them salespeople?"  
Verath pondered for a second, and then shrugged. "I don't know or care.  
At all. I kill them too fast to find out if they have both character attributes,  
anyway." At once, they were swept into battle as the enemies pounced on  
them. In the sense that they came within killing distance and then wondered  
what to do. Verath smiled, pulling the normal trigger for fast killing,  
and then pulling the death trigger when he wanted to see a really large  
explosion. Preps left and right were engulfed in flames, screaming for mercy.  
Verath drew his sword, holding the point right before a prep's neck. The  
prep trembled in fear. "All right, now I-" "Hey, wait," Saej interrupted.  
"You don't have a sword, remember?" Verath pondered this for a second, and  
then muttered, "Oh, crap," as his sword disappeared in a flash of logic.  
"Damn, I should REALLY also get a sword. Now I've gotta blow stuff up to  
make myself feel better." Immediately, he set the dial to Magic and pulled  
the death trigger over and over, sending up dust clouds many feet high.  
Saej heightened the fun by turning all the preps and salespeople to statues  
of ice, and then shattering the ice figures by shooting the ice bullets.  
When he really wanted some fun, he pulled the death trigger to cover several  
dozen enemies with ice at the same time, resulting in easy kills. Gaaz,  
in the meantime, mainly just liked to pull the death trigger for elemental  
lightning. Whenever he did so, a huge storm cloud would appear over the  
enemies, channeling each pistol's energy to electrocute many enemies at  
once in a painful surge of 80,000,000 volts. "I LOVE this death trigger!"  
Gaaz exclaimed, holding his pistols foldly. As a group, the three of them  
destroyed the enemies in no time.  
The five of them managed to meet again as they were battling, and as the  
thousands of enemies became hundreds, one thing was clear. "These 'new creations'  
are even bigger wimps than those original preps we fought," Xelfan12 commented  
bluntly. "Stupid Dynast."  
Verath fired some more shots into the crowd, and Xelkitti still whipped  
out more knives. "Yeah, we've pretty much killed everyone," Verath agreed.  
"Let's finish all of them," Xelfan12 offered.  
Xelkitti's eyes lit up. "That's definitely a good idea..."  
"Gaaz! Saej!" Verath called, catching his counterparts' attention. "We're  
gonna finish them all off with one shot!"  
Although no one spoke up about what to do, each knew what combination would  
easily destroy the entire room and everything in it, as well as possibly  
Dynast's entire territory. They began the chant, the five of them speaking  
simultaneously in an amazing surge of power. The preps and salespeople cowered  
now, no longer in confusion, but in fear.  
"Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows," they chorused.  
"Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows. I pledge myself  
to conquer, all the foes who stand, before the mighty gift bestowed in my  
unworthy hand. Let the fools who stand before me me destroyed... by the  
power you and I possess... DRAGON...SLAVE!"  
A colossal ball of combined energy behind imagination surged toward an indefinite  
point in the distance as the five companions watched it with pride and curiosity.  
This was followed by an immeasurable explosion, destroying anything remotely  
close... And then all turned to black.


	47. Me

For an instant, everything was still. No one moved at all. Then...everything was still stonily silent and unmoving.  
"Oy, isn't anyone going to turn the lights back on?" asked Gaaz. As a reply, there was a wet squishing sound, and a sliver of light appeared overhead, rapidly opening until they could once again see the lights dancing off Dynast's underground realm. Quickly, they each cast Raywings and flew out. Dynast stood where they had last seen him, perched atop a mound of organic flesh substance.  
"I see you've survived," he observed, standing up, which caused both his knees to rot away, and grow back seconds later.  
"What, did you actually expect us to lose to those salespeople and preps?" asked Verath, "They're even weaker than they were before you abosrbed them."  
"Yes, but you overlooked something," Dynast smirked, and the whole rotting away and growing back process repeated on his face, which was very disturbing. "When you killed them all their pain and the essence of their deaths came to me and made me stronger." He laughed and chunks of his jaw went flying. They landed with sickeningly juicy splats on the organic floor where they were instantly abosrbed. "Shall we begin?" he asked, cordially.  
"Bring it on," Xelkitti challenged, brandishing her bloody Death Scissors. Around her, her comrades did simlarily. Dyanst laughed again.  
"It shall be the last battle of your lives," he promised. There was a creaking kind of groaning sound that seemed to come from all sides of the Dynast-covered room. Then the ceiling shot upwards and there was an almighty explosion as tons of ice and snow built up over the centuries was forced skywards.  
From the surface it seemed as if someone had set a nuclear bomb off. The ground exploded like a volcano with snow instead of lava and ice instead of ash.  
Instead of being confined to a small room, they now had an area the size of five or six open football stadiums.  
Dynast withdrew the flesh stuff that covered the floor back into himself until he once again looked like a dying and rebirthing dark lord. The Mazoku fanned out to surround the insane Dark Lord.  
"Fight human," Xelfan12 reminded them, "and don't hurt Shabrinigdo."  
"We forgot the soap and extra swords," Gaaz reminded them.  
"Ah...fuckberries," swore Verath. Any further dialogue was cut as the battle began. Dynast began by shooting hundreds of thousands of tiny icicles at them. They were repelled by quickly cast Air Valms. The Mazoku then split up into two groups, one to distract Dynast and the other to attack him.  
"Fireball!" yelled Xelfan12, while Gaaz shouted out, "Mono Volt!" Dynast blocked both with ease.  
"Pitiful," he growled. But while his attention was turned, the remaining three Mazoku had each cast Burst Flares.


	48. Mike

The burst flares hit their target, but caused next to nothing in damage. What little burnt flesh there was quickly dropped off, and healed into it's original shape. If it could even be called a shape. Everything on dynast was constantly wriggling and convulsing. "Is that it?" Dynast spat in the direction of the 5. "That's pathetic. You creatures do not even deserve to tread upon this demonic ground!" Dynast yelled, as he surged upward, in a great wave-like rush of rot and decay. The flesh seemed to be very fragile, as it could shift around as if it were a liquid. Suddenly, Dynast sent a great bulge down from his shoulder and into the rest of his arm. It almost doubled in size, and his fingers were now indistinguishable from one another, as they festered and latched on to each other. There was no doubt about it, Dynast was attempting to take some sort of coherent shape. "You stupid fool!" shout Gaaz. "You can barely contain that power as it is, but now you're seeking to shape the very container it is held in? Madness!" Gaaz winced as a spatter of grayish green globs hit him in the face. "Madness. What would you know about madness?" asked Dynast, sending ripples of the morphic tissue all over his body. He was now doubled in size, and began to take on a more human appearance. "After all," Dynast continued, confidently. 'You have never felt this kind of power! The feeling that you can do anything! Madness, you would call it. But in the end, it will not matter. Once I have dominated all plains of existence, even the lord of nightmares herself will bow before this "madness!" Prepare yourselves! The real fight begins here!" As dynast said this, he lurched up, revealing what now appeared to be his chest. In the middle, was dynast. He was only visible from the waist up, and his arms were crossed in front of him. His skind still had a pale, disgusting complexion, and his eyes still burned a ruby red. He gave a groan, and the disgusting flesh began to harden. It started from the top, and worked it's way down to the bottom. This new container to house shabranigdo looked like the exoskeleton of a bug. Where there were joints, skin and rot still leaked out as fluently as water out of a faucet. His left arm resembled something of a plated glove, while his right arm had much more bulk. It was now just a simple, but wicked looking claw. Dynast had obviously overestimated the amount of material he should send to that particular region. As a result, his entire right arm looked to be about half the size of his chest and abdomen. Once the new Dynast was formulated, Dynast made another long groan. The area where a head should be on the colossal body began to open up and bubble. a large, rounded protrusion erupted out of it, spraying what looked like black blood all over the walls. The protrusion began to take shape as the veiny membrane around it began to rip. it was a truly disgusting sight. Xelfan12, between the rancid smell, and the disturbing images, could hardly keep down his lunch. As the membrane split one last time, it flopped to the sides. there, in between the two titanic shoulders was a scaly, head, wet with vile fluids. It was the head of cephied. "What? No! Impossible!" said most everyone, at the same time. "that can't be! not only is cephied dead, but... what about the guardians? The knights of cephied?" Verath asked, shocked and amazed by the recent occurence. "Yes. they were all very easy opponents. They went down one by one. They stood no chance against me!" Shouted DYnast, triumphantly. "I am now almost complete! I simply need a few more parts of each. But that is for another time. For now, I will send you to your graves, within me!" Dynast said this as he readied himself for battle. Verath turned to xelkitti and xelfan12. "Hey, guys. Summon the Zenafa armor, and unmute them." "Huh? Why? I don't want to listen to-" "Just dom it!" shouted Verath. xelfan12 and xelkitti did as they were told. To their surprise, the zenafa armor did not sing a stupid, yet catchy tune. Quite on the contrary, they sang a haunting hymn that was surprisingly appropriate for the battle. They also created various sounds by using their metallic bodies. "Impressive, huh?" asked verath. "yeah. Great. Now let's fight, damnit!" said Xelfan12, eagerly. The all got into a fighting position, and silently cast ray wings. Dynast saw an oppurtunity, and swung his gigantic arm forward. The force from it was tremendous. It was also surprisingly fast for such a large object. Everyone managed to fly out of the way, except for Gaaz. A split second before the claw hit him, his eyes burned with hate, and an aura formed itself around him. Then there was a resounding crack, and a whirlwind of dust and fire formed itself around the zone of impact. "Damnit, Gaaz, you fool!" shouted Saej, trying in vain to look through the dark cloud. It wasn't like he really like the guy, but he felt that they had a somewhat of a brotherly bond. He began flying toward the ever swirling veil, but stopped, and was instantly blown back by a colossal gust of wind. The wind also put out the fires, and blew away the dust. What remained in the area was truly a great scene. In the spot where Gaaz had been standing, there was now a huge violet and blue dragon. It's wings were white and feathered, and were moving back to their original folded position. In the dragon's mouth was Dynast's arm, totally imobilized. Apparently, gaaz had sidestepped just in time, while at the same time transforming to his dragon state. "Wow. What a difficult maneuver." said Saej, not to anyone in particular. Gaaz continued to stare menacingly at Dynast. "Damn you, dynast.For what you've done! You've ressurected the ryuzaku lord, only to shame him like this! Damn you!" "And what do you plan to do about that fact?" Asked Dynast, not in the least bit worried. Just then,the eyes on cephied's head opened, and Gaaz shuddered for a moment. He then went through spazms of pain, evident of his convulsionary movements. But his grip on Dynast's arm did not loosen. "If you think just pain will stop me... You are mistaken!" Gaaz shouted, as he sent the strongest electrical surge he couldmuster through Dynast's right arm. Dynast gasped. Could it be? Did he actually feel... pain? "bastard!"shouted Dynast, stillin wonderment."No! You're the bastard!" Shouted Gaaz, as he shot an even higher voltage of electricity through Dynast's arm. This bolt managed to reach Dynast's real body, causing him to shake with pain. Why is he so strong? he asked himself. But he didn't have time to think about it any more, as Gaaz began mumbling something again. It ended with "Die! Damned beast!" as Gaaz lifted his mace-like tail upinto the air, and struck it down on the shoulder area of Dynast's arm. At the sametime, he wrenched backwards with his neck,ripping Dynast's arm off of the rest of his body. "AAAAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!" shouted dynast, as his open wound overflowed with tissue, trying to regenerate the arm. But it was no use. With that area, he had lost some of the power of shbranigdo. "Gaaz! You weren't supposed to rip up shabranigdo, too!" Shouted Xelkitti. "Quiet! Iam not of your race!I will do as I please to destroy this monster!" gaaz shouted back, harshly. Xelkitti stepped backwards, taken aback by his serious and overwhelming tone. But, it was evident that Gaaz could do no more. To even cause pain to dynast was a large effort, but to severone of his limbs was an incredible feat of strength. The now severed arm lay, shriveling on the ground. What was probably shabranigdo's power seeped out, and was lost into the astral plane. Gaaz was now wavering. It was an effort just tostand up at this point. "Ha! Die now!" screamed dynast, as he grabbed Gaaz's head with his remaining arm. He formed a dragon slave, which fired into Gaaz's skull. The result was death. Gaaz's limp body fell to the floor with a sickening thud upon the now small armthat was once Dynast's.Verath Saej,Xelkitti,and Xelfan12 could hardly believe what they had seen. Did he...really die? "Damnit!" shouted Verath, with what looked like traces of tears in his eyes. "This ends now, Dynast!" He turned to Xelfan12 and Xelkitti, who were still stunned, looking at Gaaz's lifeless body. They turned to look at him. "Xelfan12, Xelkitti," started Verath. "get ready. We're casting the Giga Slave. All four of us."


	49. Me

The four remaining Mazoku each cast a protective diamond before starting to  
chant. Their voices joined harmoniously in an almost-hymn.  
-insert the giga slave spell here, will you? I can't look it up at the  
moment ;;;;;-  
Dynast felt a real glimpse of, was it really? Fear. Fear of the power that  
was gathering before his eyes as four beacons of brilliant light. Pulsating  
and growing with every passing second. He took the beacons in his hands and  
tried to crush them, but they did not go out. It was as if the spell was  
protecting them as it neared fruition. Then-  
"GIGA SLAVE!" four voices yelled together, their combined strength far more  
than their parts added up to. There was a tremendous flash of light that  
blinded even the Dark Lord. The few seconds it lasted seemed an eternity.  
Dynast almost cringed, but then it faded and the four beacons had  
transformed into pillars of divinity. The shining rays that emitted from it  
almost cowed him. Almost. But not quite.


	50. Mike

Dynast's mangled body lay smoking on the ground. The pieces of it that remianed were charred to the point where it looked like someone had spilt a bag of oal on the ground. But the fact remained that Dynast's body had, indeed, survived the giga slave to some degree. "I still see him, but is he dead?" asked Xelkitti, squinting at the smoking ashes. "I- Uhhhhnnn" Said Verath, as he sank to the ground. Saej dropped in a similar manner. "What? What's wrong?" asked Xelfan12, as he was torn away from the remains of dynast by one of Verath's moans. "I've gotta re-form." said verath, weakly. "That took a lot out of me... it was a whole giga slave, and I'm not a natural human, you know..." "What? A WHOLE Giga-Slave? How'd that happen?" asked Xelkitti. "Didn't you feel it? The power? The lord of nightmares obviously isn't tethered to one place at a time." said Verath, his aura beginning to resonate. Saej slowly melted into a sphericaL shape, and entered verath's chest. Verath immediately began shaking. "Son of a bitch!" He yelled, his mouth dripping blood. "I need Gaaz. I can't hold the power of an un-nullified mozaku." He coughed up blood and keeled over on his side. "but Gaaz is dead!" said Xelfan12, in a panic. He looked back at Gaaz's dead body, as if he was expecting it to come back to life any moment now. "SShit!" Sputtered verath. "His sould shouldn't be too far through the trials of death. Go get it!" Verath was becoming increasingly worse, and for some reason couldn't expel Saej. "But we can't ressurect something as complex as a dragon!" Whined Xelkitti. "I'm not asking you to do that! Just get the damned soul!" said Verath, as he lost conciousness due to pain and blood loss. "Fine. I'll go into the spectral plane." said Xelkitti. "You stay here and keep an eye on verath." Xelfan12 nodded, and Xelkitti shifted into the spectral plane. From there, she traveled deeper through the eerie silence, and arrived near the place where all souls eventually wind up. The spectral plane was basically just a version of the normal plane, but it had a green hue, and everything sort of rippled when touched. After searching for a while, she finally saw a small glint of light floating around in the distance. She cast a freeze arrow on it, and it solidified. She grabbed the soul, and attempted to shift back to the normal plane. The soul seemed to be anchored in place, and the harder she tried to shift, the harder it was to move. "Damnit." thought Xelkitti. "Why... Won't... this... thing... MOVE!" She yanked with all her force, and a tremendous ripping noise was made, and she fell backwards as she entered to normal plane. "Christ... This whole "fabric" of space and time pun is pissing me off." She hurried over to a limp verath, with xelfan12 casting constant healing spells on him to keep the bleeding to a minimum.. "Ok, so now what the fuck do we do with this?" asked Xelfan12. Xelkitti shrugged, and just threw it down on Verath's chest. The ice shattered, and the soul entered. Verath's eyes opened, and the first thing he yelled was "Look out!' Xelfan12 turned around, but was still blindsided by a giant fist. It was Dynast's fist. "He survived?" Asked Xelkitti, shocked. "Damn right he did." Verath said, getting up. "But how the hell did he survive 4 giga slaves, let alone the world?" Asked Xelfan12. The fist was slowly crawling towards them. it was obviously taking Dynast some time to regenerate. But, without the element of surprise and time to prepare for it's next move, the fist was basically powerless. "Dragon slave!" yelled Xelkitti, and the fist blew apart again. "Ok, so he didn't die. What the hell?" 'What the hell, indeed!" Yelled Dynast's voice. Everyone swerved their heads in different directions, but Dynast was no where to be found. "And hell is exactly where you'll all be going once I finish up here!" His voice echoed, and then stopped. Then, from a particularly large mound of ashes, a crystal shot up. It was a gold crystal, and slightly transparent. Inside were black phantoms of faces with grotesque expressions on them. Among them were dynasts, shabranigdos, Ceipheed, and several preps. Dynast's head seemed to move, but it could have been a trick of the light. His voice came on again. "Here's the new and improved me!" He shouted proudly. "What? A crystal?" asked verath. "No, fool!" said Dynast, and with that, the crystal began vibrating at a high frequency, and then shattered. "Nice move, dumbass." said Xelkitti. Dynast did not respond, but a giant black vortex appeared in place of the crystal. The air around it was shaking, sending vibrations throughout the room. The light warped, and it became darker, although the atmosphere made it seem a lot more fearful. Out of the hole emerged an armored hand. It was gold, just like the crystal had been. It grasped the edge of the dimensional rift, and pulled. It moved over the rest of him, and revealed the "new and improved" Dynast. He was a huge monolith with moving parts. He seemed to be carved from the very face of rock from which this new armor was made. It glistened and sparkled, but at the same time created a darkness that hurt your eyes when you looked at it. His body seemed to be the same construct as before, except it was plated with this lovely and horrific crystal. Dynast's right arm was back, and it was now a gigantic blade instead of a claw. Dynast's real body was still embedded halway into the chest cavity, but he was armored as well, and now carried a staff and sword. The sword had a ruby blade, and the staff had a black jem in it's head. "Now..." started dynast, as he turned to face everyone. "Now that you have seen my ultimate form, are you really sure you want to fight?" Everyone looked at him, slightly puzzled. "I asked you a question! I await your answer." Xelfan12 stepped forward. "What do you mean 'join you'? After the treacherous acts of your former cohorts, I'd think you would have had enough!" Dynast laughed. "I HAVE had enough! Enough of your treachery! That is why I meant for you to join me in the manner I am about to demonstrate." Everyone watched closely as dynast jabbed one of his arms through midair. It went straight through the air, and when he pulled it back, he had DSD in his grasp. "No!" shouted xelkitti, but she restrained herself and stood back; there was nothing she could do. "WAAAAAAYAAAAAAH! Let go!" screamed DSD. Dynast's arm engulfed her in a liquid version of the crystal. Her face soon appeared among those of preps. "Sick bastard." Started Xelfan12. "You drove me to this! You were the ones who cast the giga slave!" Said Dynast. 'What are you getting at?" asked Verath, impatiently. 'Why, can't you see?" asked Dynast, as he tapped on his gold plating. "Does this color remind you of anything?" Xelfan12 gasped. "Shit... it can't be possible..." he said. "Oh, but it's not!" said Dynast. "i haven't actually absorbed the Lord of Nightmares. I have simply borrowed a small fraction of her power. This crystal was laying dormant inside of me. All it needed was a little more juice." Dynast laughed. "Now, I ask you again. Join or die?" Xelfan12, Verath, and Xelkitti all shouted "Never!" in unison. "Then I'm afraid it's death for you all!" said Dynast, gleefully. "but let's have a little fun, first. Verath! Come here!" Verath looked puzzled, but then slowly began walking towards Dynast. "Excellent." said Dynast. 'Now, Verath! Make them bleed!" Verath's eyes were glowing a dark blue as he turned and faced Xelkitti and Xelfan12.


	51. Me

"Verath-" started Xelkitti, but was cut off by a powerful right hook. "GODS DAMN IT! SNAP OUT OF IT!" she yelled at him, just barely getting out of there in time.

"Shadowsnap!" yelled Xelfan12. Shards of darkness held Verath in his place. "Verath, listen to me! You've GOT to stop it. VERATH!"

The impudent Mazoku had cast a lighting, freeing himself the spell and with amazing speed he had never before demonstrated, managed to catch Xelfan12 headon with an Ice Arrow and at the same time kicked Xelkitti towards the ground as she flew to attack, knocking all the wind and a good bit of blood out of her.

Xelfan12, now enclosed in a thick layer of ice, could only struggle and watch in horror as Verath did the most creative things he had ever witnessed to make Xelkitti bleed. To his very slight relief, the ice blocked out all sounds from the outside, so he did not have to hear the rushing of blood, the tearing of tendons, and ripping of flesh. Nor the screams of pain.

Xelkitti had a very unusually high threshold for pain, but this was too much. It was like those nightmares you have where someone keeps attacking you but you're too slow to hit back and they just keep coming down, bring wave after wave of pain...and blood...

_Lucky all the wounds are just physical_, she thought as her jugular was ripped open, _easily repaired by just a touch of fire element.._ But she knew she couldn't. Doing so would put her completely under the control of Dyanst/Shabrinigdo/Ceiphieed/L-sama. Hell, they'd be lucky if they ever got out of this alive. What did the fucking world have against her anyways? Why the hell did Verath always have to be the one to turn on them? Fuck the world. Fuck Dynast. At that moment she hated the whole fucking world. These thoughts sparked a new fire in her, and she found the strength and speed to fight back.

"FIREBALL!" she yelled. Caught off guard Verath as blown to the other side of the icy stadium. That bought Xelkitti enough time to recover enough to stop bleeding so profusely and free Xelfan12 from his frozen cocoon.


	52. Mike

Verath stopped his perpetual onslaught for a moment. 'what the hell are you doing?" screamed Dynast. verath looked back at him, and with an air of idiocy in his voice, said "I have absolutely no idea!" Dynast sweatdropped. "You're supposed to be hurting your friends, remember?" Dynast reminded verath, annoyed. "Oh yeah!" said verath, and immediately resumed beating the crap out of everything that moved. Only now, he was humming as he did it. "What the fuck?" asked Xelkitti, easily dodging and blocking Verath's horribly placed punches. "it's like he's not even trying!" Verath sent a half-assed flare arrow in Xelkitti's direction. It moved slowly, and was completely cancelled out by a sigh Xelkitti let loose. "God. What is his problem?" Asked Xelfan12. Dynast was equally clueless. "i told you to hurt them!" He barked at Verath. Verath just continued, yelling back "It's not working!" Dynast slapped his face. He then decided to penetrate Verath's mind, and see how it could be resisting his force of persuasion so well. What he saw inside Verath's head shocked and amazed him, while, at the same time, utterly disgusted and confused him. For, you see, what Dynast saw was nothing. And at the same time, it was _more_ nothing. Verath's mind wasn't resisting his orders. It simply wasn't working. Or to put it more accurately, he was day dreaming. Dynast looked around. There were all sorts of things, most of them giant robots. At one point, a giant ferret robot drifted by, happily and unaware of his presence. Dynast had seen enough. He went out of Verath's mind, and back into reality. "You know, just when I think I'm being really evil and manipulative and totally ominous, something like this happens. Friggin' incredible. Verath! You can frechin stop now." Verath looked back at Dynast, yawned, and fell over. Xelfan12 and Xelkitti looked positively shocked. Xelfan12 went up to Verath with a long stick. "hey. Hey." he said, as he poked him. Verath woke up. "What? What did I miss?" Asked verath, whipping his head back and forth. "geee... uhhh... you just missed the beginning of the decline of the plot value and overall hopeless feeling of this battle." Xelkitti said, sounding a bit peeved. "yeah, well, I thought this would be better!" said verath. Everyone, including Dynast, fell over. "Well, now, for another interesting plot twist!" Shouted verath. He began screaming, as a swirly mystical aura appeared around him. Gaaz's sould and Saej's body removed themselves from verath. They then fused together, and shrunk into the form of... a ferret. "Ok. This is getting completely ridiculous." said xelfan12, disgruntled. "Why can they stay together? Wasn't there that whole thing where they needed you to sustain life?" asked xelkitti. "yeah... well... not when they're a ferret, I guess." Said Verath, back. 'Well, if we're going to do this, let's do it. NOW." Said Xelfan12, increasingly disturbed. "Ok!" said Verath. "Ferath! Attack!" "Ferath?" Asked Xelkitti, Xelfan12, and dynast in unison. They all sweatdropped, as well. Ferath ran up to dynast's feet. "You are joking, of course! This puny creature cannot stand up to me! I can smash it without even using any of my powers!" Dynast lifted up his foot, and was about to crush the ferret, when it began hopping around. "Wait. What the hell's it doing... hehehe... It's kinda cute." Ferath began opening his mouth and making a grunting noise, symbolizing that he wanted to play with Dynast. "Awwww... is so CUTE!" Said Dynast, getting down on his stomach to pet the ferret. As he stroked it down it's back, his arm exploded. 'Huh?" asked Dynast. His other arm exploded. "What the fuc-" Dynast exploded. luckily, the ferret was not harmed. "Ok, I'm tempted to ask what happened here... So I will. What happened?" Asked Xelkitti. Xelfan12 was just staring at a wall by now. "Ummm... I really don't care, except that Dynast exploded, and now we have a FERRET!" Verath cheered. "Can't argue with THOSE results!" said Xelfan12, sarcastically. "No, you can't!" said xelkitti, delighted, while huggling the ferret. "Let's go home!" Said Verath. 'Yay!" said the ferret. And they did. And then stuff happened. And everyone was happy. Even Dynast. Because he blew up watching a ferret play around. And no one has ever wanted anything more than that. The End. Oh yeah. And the preps were released and re-educated by ferrets, and they became better people, but they still sucked. kinda. And DSD turned into a ferret because she wanted to. And the rest of the shabranigdo and ceipheed things... uhhh... they turned into ferrets, and lead better lives, and the war of gods and monsters ended because no one wants to hurt ferrets. WOOHOO!

Wow. That was shitty. And it didn't make sense. And it was certainly anti-climactic. And it didn't go with the rest of the story. And it didn't make use of ANY of the powerful spells that could've been used.But it had a ferret. See? it all balances out... i think.


End file.
